THE Still Point of the Pandemic World
Blog Archive - 2023
by Dr. Susan Nettleton
January 1, 2023
Welcome to 2023!
New Year's Day brings us a welcomed chance for a clean slate, a new beginning in whatever aspect of life we choose to emphasize. Traditionally, we let go of the old before we claim the new. Hence, yesterday brought many people some encounter and review of 2022 and years past. What strikes me this year is: The power of the New Year Holiday as a global consensus on the space to begin again. The holiday itself shows the power of consciousness.
While known history dates some type of New Year celebration to as early as 4,000 years ago, it's more than likely festivals and religious rites of "starting over" came into being long before that. Early cultures tracked the natural cycles of the seasons, patterns of weather, plant growth and animal behavior, the apparent movement of the constellations, even the daily cycles of light and dark--day and night--that gave rise to the idea of new and renewed life as the way of things. This awareness in turn blended with concepts of prayer and offerings to a larger source of control of such cycles, since humans had little control. Over centuries of tradition, discovery, war and destruction, scientific, philosophical, spiritual and religious experience, human awareness of the cycles of life and human behavior produced New Year's Eve and New Year's Day as a universal archetype. Some cultures still celebrate and draw their traditional festivals from the lunar calendar and as such have other dates for a New Year, but modern commerce and global business across cultures have added recognition of the western calendar with January 1 as the starting the point of the global New Year.
Consider this agreement as a collective creation of human consciousness. History details the political and religious wrangling and the powerful rulers who had their decrees on the making of calendars at different times. It was only in the 20th Century that global business brought our current calendar to the global forefront. Still, whatever the date, the idea of "starting over" remains a human construct that gives emotional power to a specific piece of time where we can let go, regroup, review, and begin anew--each to their own physical, emotional, mental and spiritual capacity. There is a power in a collective archetype. What other possibilities, new global agreements, world-wide consensus, can we agree on and gift our world? As you contemplate your New Year, consider a personal resolution to be a positive part of an evolving collective consciousness. Happy New Year! (Susan Nettleton)
for a New Year's poem/prayer by Larry Morris, follow the link: https://hillsidesource.com/spiritual-launchpad
January 8, 2023
This past week has had me envisioning a coin for 2023. One side says Gratitude, perhaps there is a sunny rainbow; the other side says Forgiveness, perhaps there are raindrop-like tears...The word "Time" arcs above both sides; below has simply "2023". My coin image is a melding of two ideas (ones I like writing about). The first, from American poet Carl Sandburg (1878-1967):
"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. And when you spend it, spend it wisely so that you get the most for your expenditure."
The second is from Norman Vincent Peale (1891-1993), author of "The Power of Positive Thinking", who wrote that forgiveness and gratitude are "two sides of the same coin". He encouraged those who could not find their way to forgive a situation or person or themselves to practice gratitude until they could. Gratitude opens the heart to forgiveness and forgiveness brings forth the power of gratitude.
So this coin of 2023 is a reminder that we are moving through time, and our feeling states, our hearts, and our ideas-- sources of negativity and dissatisfaction, as well as creativity, deep insight, and yes, happiness--take time to ripen and mature. Most often, we forgive over time; forgiveness is a healing process and, depending on the depth and circumstances of the wound or offense, we need time to forgive, to allow a new understanding to come. Similarly, we expand our capacity for gratitude over time as we grow our capacity to appreciate life--our world of 'people, places and things', the times when problems simply work out, the magnificence and intricate beauty of the world. In time (as Peale often wrote), we come to an understanding that 'problems' are the impetus to spiritual depth and new mastery through deeper reliance on God.
The coin of 2023 reminds us we have choices, spiritual choices all year long. If you don't feel grateful, try forgiveness. If you cannot forgive, give thanks. With every impasse, loss, or disappointment, life provides compensation and an alternative path. Then, we have the choice to turn our attention to the gift of newness. Life continually renews itself and that process of renewal is you. Let every coin you come across be a reminder. (Susan Nettleton)
For poet Jane Kenyon's take on Happiness, Forgiveness and Gratitude, follow the link-- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../happiness-56d21cb4b54e9
January 15, 2023
“In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. ~ Lao Tzu
This Sunday, the rain continues in California after the post-New Year's flooding. While the rain is greatly needed, the severity of these recent storms bring tragic events (as well as heroic responses). Like storm and flooding events in other parts of the country, daily life is disrupted. People grieve. In time, we adjust and regroup. We become more aware of changing weather patterns and with that, absorb the need to be vigilant, to pay attention to community alerts and check-in and on each other, as has our been way for centuries. Communities can solidify or fall apart. Modern knowledge now brings the sobering understanding that human activity impacts not just social structure, but the very climate itself, including extreme weather.
But rain, like water, can also be seen in a spiritual context. So today has me thinking of Rumi's poetry volume titled "Unseen Rain". Authored and translated by John Moyne and Coleman Barks, 1986, they write: "In some languages of the Middle East the word for "rain" and the word for "grace" are the same. These quatrains are evidence of that invisible gift falling on the mature spirit and master poet...". To me, all Rumi poetry speaks of unseen Grace and all rain is Grace. Unseen isn't, of course, about physical vision; it's about the Unrecognized Divine that is awaiting recognition in an opening within us, each in our own way, at a receptive moment. The overwhelming force of a storm can be that moment, as well as the still quiet peace of meditation.
Listening to the rain outside my door and sensing it as Grace, changes the atmosphere within me and around me. The vibrant green of grass and foliage outside the windows, speaks of renewing life. If we are indeed a living aspect of this wondrous creation we find ourselves in, then that green is a shared renewal within. Wherever you are this Sunday in your spiritual reflection, consider the Grace of rain and yes, the weather. As Jesus put it, "...for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:45.)
This rain storm is very much visible, although it's relationship to the severe drought conditions that preceded the "atmospheric rivers" of rain is not so clearly understood. The drought has been lessened, but not ended. As time moves on, more data will guide human water use and storage policies in this season of climate change. That in and of itself, feels like Grace. (Susan Nettleton)
"Not only do the thirsty seek water, The water too thirsts for the thirsty."--Rumi
For more thoughts on renewal, follow the link: https://hillsidesource.com/renewal
For more Rumi: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../SunMustCome/index.html
January 19, 2023
Announcement to all!
Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, January 29, 2023
with Dr. Susan Nettleton
Topic: Be in 2023!
Time: Jan 29, 2023 11:00 AM Mountain Time
10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
If you are not on our email list for Zoom talks and would like to
attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page for Hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address. Hope to see you there!
January 22, 2023
This morning I raise the question, "What world view do you hold?" "How to you see and think about this world you live in, in this new year, 2023? Now, consider that in a time of mounting storm warnings in the East, more drama in Congress, and continued reports of violence, this week also brought an astounding announcement in the realm of astrophysics. The National Science Foundation's NOIRLab released the results of one of the largest surveys of our night sky in history, revealing the "Gargantuan Astronomical Data Tapestry of the Milky Way."
This translates to a two year process of filming the night sky with a dark-energy telescopic camera in a mountainous area in Chile. The first part of the project, released in 2017, revealed 2 billion objects--mainly stars, but the most recent filming was able to capture the stars and other contents in unprecedented detail. The 2 data sets combined reveal around 3.2 billion objects (again, mostly stars) in a view that covers 6.5% of the night sky in an area 13,000 times the angular area of a full moon. So we have pictures of 3.2 billion objects filling only 6.5 % of the night sky. Astounding. What might the other 95.3% hold? As Andrew Saydari, the lead researcher, put it: "Despite many hours of staring at images containing tens of thousands of stars, I am not sure my mind has wrapped around the magnitude of these numbers."
To remind you, the Milky Way is Earth's home, a spiral galaxy formed approximately 14 billion years ago with a diameter spanning 100,000 light-years. Our solar system is 26,000 light years from the center, All objects in the Galaxy revolve around the Galaxy's center. It takes 250 million years for our Sun (and the Earth with it) to make one trip around the Black Hole center of the Milky Way.
As a younger poet, Walt Whitman wrote "The earth, that is sufficient, I do not want the constellations any nearer, I know they are very well where they are, I know they suffice for those who belong to them." (Song of the Open Road,1855). But as he grew older, he had a profound experience that inspired a new vow:
"Now while the great thoughts of space and eternity fill me I will measure myself by them. And now touch'd with the lives of other globes arrived as far long as those of the earth or waiting to arrive, or pass'd on farther than those of the earth, I henceforth no more ignore them than I ignore my own life." (Night on the Prairies, 1879.)
Perhaps today is ripe for a larger world view, that expands beyond the troubles of our times, and in expanding, gives room for our own astounding solutions. As many spiritual teachings remind us, not only are we living in the world, the world lives in us, and so does the cosmos. (Susan Nettleton)
For the 2 poems quoted here, follow the links: https://poets.org/poem/song-open-road-1 and https://allpoetry.com/Night-On-The-Prairies And a link to Larry Morris' poetic view: https://hillsidesource.com/shopping-at-cosco
January 29, 2023
Today's post is a excerpt from this morning's Sunday Zoom Talk. (If you would like to be on the email list for future Zoom talks with Susan Nettleton, please email us through the contact page for hillsidesource. com or at hillsideew@aol.com.
I'm throwing out a challenge for the year: Actually BE in 2023. Whatever goals and direction you maybe sorting through now that January opens to February, hold them up against the challenge to Be in 2023. This year of 2023 is only partially defined and will not be completely defined until the year is over and beyond, as part of 1 year in 100 years of the 21st century. You may cleverly point out that this is just a way of saying be here now, be in the present, and that is true, but I am not talking about the moment to moment present, but rather a present that is in the context or frame that includes a past and a future.
We have mindsets, rehearsed over years, that keep us from being in 2023. One of the primary ones is the idea that "the best time of my life has come and gone". Has it? Nostalgia, or as my teacher U.G. used to say, "Nostalgia for the bad". The tendency of the human brain is to diminish unpleasant experiences over time and promote positive ones. That is healing. While continual dwelling on the painful events of the past is not useful, our brains' tendency to actually revise memories can have us remember events inaccurately, feeding the idea that life was better than it actually was. The problem occurs when we measure the time we're in now through this lens of how good things were. We all reminisce--it's human nature, it helps put life in some context of our story and shared stories, but sometimes we create a frozen mindset "that was the best time", and everything else from there is downhill. How can we possibly bear to be present now, when it will never be good enough?
Reflect on whether your dwelling on the past robs you of enjoyment or meaning now. If you are dissatisfied with being in 2023, time set yourself free. Life is different; you, people around you, your sense of place, all have changed. Life has become more complex--there are more people, more things and at least in many areas of life, more choices, although those who look back to simpler times might want to take away choices, not realizing the actual solution may lay in making peace with complexity. Greater changes likely lay ahead. Our years of Pandemic brought a collective awareness of global vulnerabilities, fragile populations and governments, along with the power of technology and the future wonders and dilemmas tech will continue to bring. If you assess life only through the news and social media, it easy to slide into despair and long for the past.
If your mind is made up, firm in the idea that your best years are behind you, and even the world's best years are past, you are in trouble; we are in trouble. Where is the incentive for positive participation and creativity? That hopeless rejection of 2023, will be mirrored back to you, before you even try. So I don't mean we can't indulge in a moment of nostalgia, or miss someone or something, but an embedded belief that everything is downhill--you, relationships, society, the beauty and wonder of life--cuts you off from truly living.. Being in 2023 requires courage and clarity. The negative mindset is the obstacle. You don't know what the future holds, why assume the worst? Life remains amazing. (Susan Nettleton)
follow the link for today's poem: https://poets.org/poem/house-called-tomorrow
February 5, 2023
"Life is a balance of holding on and letting go" Rumi
As I reflected on the unfolding new year in last weeks Zoom talk, I made the comment that not every year is a year of great change. Some years serve to stabilize our lives. To say that every year carries the same significant process of change is misleading. This may be a milestone year or not, it maybe a transition year, or time of completion or initiation. It maybe a solidifying year, where the changes we have been going through have a chance to solidify. A year of stability can be a gift. During these pandemic years, the use of social media and news for disguised advertising and competing social agendas has perhaps made us live with the assumption that life is continually being disrupted, with one crisis after another, in a way that makes it more difficult to accept stability as possible.
To positively and spiritually participate in everyday life within the world means discerning what our values and inner directive call us to maintain and nourish, and what we are pulled to change-- how we personally and individually are called to participate in life, with a mind that is open to possibilities and paths we have not yet seen. Two thoughts occur to me as tools in this discernment--the first is writer Portia Nelson's classic piece: Autobiography in Five Short Chapters (see link below). In essence, she is writing about our personal blind spots that get us into trouble in life and in one way or another cause us misery, until we grasp that the consequences of our mindset are simply too painful and self-defeating to continue down the same road, whether that road is our behavior, habitual choices, relationships, or ultimately our thinking. Time, repetition and self-reflection are keys that ultimately lead us to understand we can take a more life-enhancing track. Discovering our blindspots can be shocking and painful. Yet, once we grasp that well-practiced assumptions and habits may actually be self-undermining, we become more open to the second tool, a simple but powerful prayer: "Help me to see where my answers are wrong." This is the prayer that unlocks confusion and self-delusion.
Let the larger spiritual field enter today, already aim especially for that one spot or issue within you that is reaching, consciously or unconsciously, for a new direction...or a new connection. It is entirely possible that the new, paradoxically, is the very thing that ushers in stability. (Susan Nettleton)
for 'Autobiography in Five Short Chapters':
https://palousemindfulness.com/docs/autobio_5chapters.pdf
for a poetic view of unfolding awakening:
February 12, 2023
Tuesday is Valentines Day--a day with multiple layers of meaning in world culture. History shows the focus on Romantic love has roots in pagan rites, festivals and celebrations of a coming Spring. While the official establishment of "Valentine's Day" was 496 A.D, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 a Catholic feast day in honor of a martyred Saint Valentine. But the ancient story of St. Valentine is surrounded by the jumbled history of other saints who shared the name. This uncertain identity eventually led the Church to remove the day as an official feast day in 1969. By then of course, the holiday had spread beyond religious tradition to become a highly commercial, global celebration, and at least in American culture, expanded to become a day to express love in its many forms--friendship, family, support--although the core tradition is romance.
Beyond the bonds of all of these levels of affection, there is the experience of Divine Love. While modern advertising has cleverly pushed cultural expression of love through special meals, flowers, cards and gifts, underneath all this commercial show, still lays the human heart and the movement toward union and a shared life. Beyond that movement is the joy of life itself, the song of Creation, Divine Love--Cosmic Delight.
To just call that Song "love", in our limited human sense of love, is only a partial awareness. As my teacher, U.G., used to say, "love means two." To love in the human sense requires separation; it actually reinforces separation. With true union, there is no separate being to love, no separate lover. This is the paradox of this human internalized call to love. Zen sums up the way beyond: "Not one, Not two."
Whether you enjoy the festivity of Valentine's Day on Tuesday, or ignore it completely, let your heart stay open. If you feel left out, or resentful, or dismissive, try a little forgiveness. Today, this Sunday, offers a window into a larger field of Love and strangely, you, right now, are at the center.
(Susan Nettleton)
For the poetic expression of that larger field follow the links:
Marie Howe's poem: https://mbird.com/poetry/annunciation-by-marie-howe/
Larry Morris poem: https://hillsidesource.com/the-heart-of-things
February 19, 2023
An overnight wind storm this past week awakened me with sounds of branches lashing windows and doors while yard debris whirled around outside. Nature calmed down that morning, but left me pondering turbulence. It seems a fit label for the times we are navigating. In the years when I was a frequent long distance flyer, I never really mastered turbulence, but I learned to distract myself by shifting attention with full concentration on some other activity--a word puzzle, a continuing ed article, or breath meditation. Some people seemed to enjoy the thrill of the roller coaster; others sought distraction in conversation. There was no point in anyone trying to converse with me; my focus was one-pointed, a sealed off absorption in concentration mode.
The discomfort of air turbulence is the awareness that you have no possibility of controlling it--the pilots can manage the plane, flight attendants can institute safety protocols, but as a passenger, you let go. Often that means controlling what you can control--your breath, your muscle tone, your attention. Flying then becomes a powerful spiritual exercise in both faith and surrender. You become fully you: a being capable of chosen, conscious activity, simultaneously participating in a larger realm, carried along with others across an expanse of space only partially seen and partially knowable or understood by you. Truly a capsule of Life!
Weather-wise, turbulence remains one of the most unpredictable of weather phenomena--a time of instability in the atmosphere with irregular atmospheric movement, especially up and down currents. The term has now expanded to include a broader sense of "atmosphere" of emotional agitation, confusion, social disturbance and chaos. In the cultural world of organizational and communication theory, turbulence has become a metaphor for new models of understanding and managing disruption in both institutions and relationships. These models draw on the aviation classification of 4 degrees of Turbulence: Light (little or no disruption), Moderate (widespread awareness), Severe (sense of crisis), and Extreme (structural damage--to the plane, or an institution, or a relationship). Quantifying a threat aids in putting it in realistic perspective, allowing the mind to respond more effectively. Unpredictable and controllable events fan human fear.
Yet, we are creative, adaptive and intelligent. Human aircraft design actually uses these same atmospheric pressure principles and up/down currents to lift and fly aircraft. Flight itself is, as professor Steven Gross writes, a "working with" the forces of turbulence rather than fighting, dominating, or cowering from them. This Sunday, consider the turbulence factors in your own life and your spiritual practice that allows you to pass through and soar. (Susan Nettleton)
"Turbulence is a constant element in our universe, maybe the prime element and it requires thought and practice enough so that we can hold it with balance and work with it as a constant part of being alive." Steven Jay Gross, Using Turbulence Theory as a Model in a Volatile World, Temple University. 2016. (slide presentation)
For poetic inspiration, follow the links.
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../AWaveofSea/index.html
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../YourBoatYour/index.html
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../WhereIwander/index.html
February 26, 2023
Today, while looking at gray skies in this weekend of storms (no one really out on the streets--people have stayed inside, awaiting the next downpour), I am watching a tree, three stories high, sway gently in the wind. This scene turns my thoughts to how we too are swayed by another kind of force, the power of influence. Certainly empty streets bare the influence of weather reports, warnings, alerts and sirens. Yet, there always the few who simply go their own way, Influence--the power to effect change in opinion, behavior, and actions--can be complex for human beings. We are affected by and emulate opinions and actions of others, often unconsciously, but we also consciously seek advice and pay attention to the choices and actions others around us, directly and indirectly. And we in turn, influence others, with or without intention. This ability is one of the human traits that binds us together, reinforces community and in relationship, mutual support. But influence can also be a less desirable tendency that reinforces power and value systems that exclude and divide. If we are easily influenced, we can fail to develop our own uniqueness and the capacity to make decisions for our own well-being.
Influence has evolved to be a powerful tool in commercialism that parallels industrial development. Centuries ago, even early bartering systems, sales depended on word of mouth and local opinion. With the printing press, advertising could be shaped by language, as well as image, for broader appeal. Testimonials for a product added another dimension. The Age of Radio, followed by television honed the "commercial" as a new powerful tools for influence.
Following those came the reign of "infomercials", program length presentations to entertain or offer "information", but used as a form of influence for the sale of specific products, as the lines between information and advertising blurred. In the 21st century, we now have social media with professional (paid) 'Influencers', who further blur the distinction between opinion and fact, entertainment, personal connections and celebrity status. They are particularly powerful 'informers" for millennial and later generational followers. In a world that offers such a dazzling array of choices, it's easy to forget that these are paid, well-disguised marketers.
The point of this reflection is that we do rely on others in navigating the complexity of modern life. This is likely to become more so, rather than less, as the 21st century progresses, unless we abdicate our choices to computerized algorithms, rather than shared value systems in a sense of exchange within community. It's a good time to consider the 'influencers' in the course of your life and the influence you hold with others. Beyond community though, there is the pull of the inner, deeper Influence of your spirit, the imbedded wisdom and guidance that leads us, as we turn to It. The spiritual life is not a battle between the ways of the world and the ways of God. Rather, it is a growing into the understanding that God is right here, right now, in this world. Guidance comes through every possible form in this world, as we give way to a spiritual life.
(Susan Nettleton)
for more, follow the link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse... (P.S., Robert Penn Warren wrote "All the King's Men".)
Even in our illusions, God speaks: https://allpoetry.com/Last-Night-As-I-Was-Sleeping
March 5, 2023
March is a transitional month. Depending where on the globe you live, March is the opening to spring or fall. I am reminded of this as I've watch this particular day begin with dark clouds (and a rather gloomy weather forecast), then partial sun and now blue sky. Our month begins in winter and ends in the glory of spring; the shift is a process over time. It's interesting to speculate whether our human awareness, our conscious recognition of that cycle, plays some part in that process. Certainly the cycles impact our choices, expectations, even our moods, and of course, our cultures as well. We now know collective human behavior also impacts environment and climate, and our behavior is the expression of our values, expectations and beliefs, as we collectively travel on this earth home around our orbit path, around our sun.
Today I am encouraging you to find/define you focal point in that cycle. My grandchildren love dancing and especially spinning in all sorts of styles, so I've taught them the technique of spotting. Spotting is simply finding a fixed point to focus on in front of you, for your eyes to lock onto, and return to immediately in a spin to prevent disorientation and dizziness. What point do we return to again and again, through the cycles of the seasons, through the cycles of a life? And most importantly, does it include joy?
After the weariness of this lingering Pandemic and the upheaval that it wrought, it seems to me important to spotlight Joy as a spiritual principle. Joy is not, though, to be manufactured, or faked. As the I Ching puts it, "True joy must spring from within." And as Roger Housen wrote in his introduction to his edited collection of poetry "Dancing with Joy" (2007): "Conventional wisdom tells us that nobody goes to heaven for having a good time"...[yet] "Joy is an up welling of life, of spirit, a blossoming of freedom. It is what we are here for." Can we let go of seasons past, and find a Joyful focal spot within? Whatever your focus today, let there be a spark of Joy. (Susan Nettleton)
For more about Joy, follow the links: https://www.best-poems.net/mary_oliver/mindful.html
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse... (pay particular attention to the last line)
March 12, 2023
“Why should I wish to see God better than this day?... I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then, In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass; I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God's name, And I leave them where they are, for I know that others will punctually come forever and ever.” Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
Someone recently wrote me that they were trying to "stand the pain to get to the grace". While I have found it true that Life provides compensation in times of injury, hardship, and loss, our emotions and our thinking often fail to recognize compensation for the balm that it is. Belief systems which tell us that we must suffer in order to know Grace (unearned Divine aid and spiritual gifts), miss the point: We cannot earn Grace, by suffering nor by good works. There's no measuring system for a formula that prescribes pain, including spiritual pain, to reach Grace. How much pain? How excruciating, and for how long does one need to suffer? Both pain and grace are words--concepts--molded and linked together by humanity's various experiences and need for understanding, expression and comfort, turned into formula's, and passed down to generations. Do they really fit the 21st century? What happens if we disconnect our personal suffering from having any spiritual value? Perhaps that would free us to be more effective in managing and dissolving the causes of suffering.
While it often appears that the desperation of personal suffering pushes us to search for another way of life, some other force or power, to be free from suffering, does this search really bring Grace? Does it somehow prove to God that we are worthy or serious about our spiritual life? Or has Grace been there all along? This Life itself is Grace: this Life, with struggles and hardships and times of loss; this same life with wonders, delights, joy, and compensation--All Grace. What happens if we decidedly turn our attention to the delightful, take time to marvel the beauty, savor the satisfactions that come, note happy events, embrace compensations that rebalance life, allow the smile, all the laugh...all of which add up to joy? It can't/won't be every moment, but we can choose more joy. We choose joy when we pay attention and appreciate the good that weaves through our everyday life, especially when it seems obscured by gray skies or dark thoughts, or heavy hearts. Letters from God are still flowing--not just letters--but Love letters, awaiting your warm response. (Susan Nettleton)
For more, follow the links: https://onbeing.org/poetry/small-basket-of-happiness/
March 15, 2023
Announcement to all!
Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, March 26, 2023
with Dr. Susan Nettleton
Topic: Something More
Time: March 26, 2023 11:00 AM Mountain Time
10:00 AM Pacific Time
If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to
attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address.
March 19, 2023
“When a thing disturbs the peace of your heart give it up.” Prophet Muhammad
During March, I have been focusing on joy at the core of the spiritual life. But again, not as something we can fabricate--not a pretense. Rather, joy is a discovery. Admittedly, it is difficult to get past meanings, translations and definitions that vary in different languages and cultures; but whatever we name it, this aspect of life takes us beyond drudgery, suffering, burdens and sadness, to a lightness and affection for Creation--a smile and great gratitude for daily life.
This Wednesday, the Holy month of Ramadan begins for Muslims. It is a time to strengthen and deepen the connection to Allah, through spiritual practices and prayers. including a daily fast from sunrise to sundown. The month of Ramadan ends (sundown, April 21, 2023) with Eid-al-Fitr, the Festival of Breaking the Fast, that commemorates the cornerstone of Islam: Allah's revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad. Because the religious calendar is based on the moon, rather than solar cycle, the month of Ramadan varies each year. This year it overlaps with the Christian season of Lent, which began in February but continues for 6 and a half weeks, ending at sundown on April 6, 2023. This is the 40 day season of prayer, fasting, abstinence and giving that is the preparation for Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the cornerstone of Christianity.
I am reminding you that there are quite likely well over a billion people, who are in a deeply spiritual (as well as cultural) process this month, focused on moving beyond the self. Even if we are independent spirits who do not identify with formal religion, we can honor their practice and open our minds and hearts to the Great Good that guides their way.
One further thought: how does the practice of fasting and other forms of self-denial as spiritual practice, relate to Joy? On a physical level, fasting is a reset for the body. That reset undoubtedly impacts us emotionally and mentally. This is not the intensity of a hunger strike; this is a movement that can restore balance between the things that please and nourish us in the outer world, and that which sustains us in our inner life. And through such practice we can begin to understand the Prophet Muhammad's words above. We discover we really can give up things which as individuals, "disturb the peace" of our hearts and block our Joy. (Susan Nettleton)
For thoughts on what might block your Joy, follow the links:
https://hillsidesource.com/.../2018/3/24/fasting-from-worry
https://hillsidesource.com/daily.../2018/6/17/surrender
March 24, 2023
Reminder Announcement to all!
Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, March 26, 2023 with Dr. Susan Nettleton
Topic: Something More
Time: March 26, 2023 11:00 AM Mountain Time
10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: Hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address.
March 26, 2023
Today's post is an excerpt from this morning's Zoom talk, "Something More". If you are interested in attending the Sunday talks, add your email to our email notification list at: hillsideew@aol.com
What I am considering here is that basic things like appetite and life satisfaction and wanting something more, are not separate from the spiritual aspect of wanting something more. There is a need for more within the fundamental nature of the human species. And yes, it is influenced, if not hijacked by commercialism and culture, which includes religious teachings. Another factor of the human reach for something more, especially with aging, is the problem of mortality. This life as we know it, does end. And the 'I' that we know and live as 'here' is displaced. I leave the door open for what that means, because to me it is an unknown; I have my speculations, along with all of you. But so much of life has been unknown, we have all lived with the unknown.
We just don't usually focus on it, but we stretch a bit toward it, toward a something more.
Perhaps all the 'something more' quests in our lives are simply inquiries, expeditions, into the unknown.
Yes often we may want more of something known, but what we don't know is what is our limit. Sometimes we are pushed to discover the limits. William Blake wrote: "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough." What are the limits of life? In Buddhism, the emphasis is not so much desire itself, the wanting, and possessiveness, as it is coming to terms with the impermanence of form. The other aspect of that is that new forms are constantly coming into manifestation."You say goodbye, but I say Hello." Something else is always forming. That is the joy of life.
"He who binds to himself a joy, Does the winged life destroy, He who kisses the joy as it flies "Lives in eternity's sunrise." (Blake) https://poets.org/poem/eternity
The sun is always setting and the sun is always rising. Life and death are simultaneous processes. Blake thought God manifested himself in Man through the divine quality of human imagination; the true freedom for humans is the freedom to create. And that resonates with some streams of New Thought as well as other thinkers: we are instruments of a creative process that we cannot fully grasp... The Something More I'm talking about this morning is the something more that arises out of the same source that appetite arises, a natural need to be filled by reaching toward more. . . To understand who you are, is to discover something more. To come to understand what is here, is always something more than what you understood before. That's why paying attention to your wants is important. (Susan Nettleton)
Some of the poetry from this morning: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../mind-wanting-more
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../poems/40900/missed-time
April 2, 2023
Today is Palm Sunday in the Christian faith (with the exception of the Orthodox Denominations which follow a different calendar), the beginning of Holy Week, and the unfolding of the Easter Celebration. As I wrote previously, this year the Islamic world is also in the Holy Month of Ramadan. In addition, Jewish Passover week begins April 5 this year, a sacred recognition of their deliverance from Egyptian slavery. (The celebration of Passover also brings Christians a reminder that the Christian "Last Supper" was actually Jesus and the Disciples' Passover meal, demonstrating the stream of the common roots of Abrahamic religions). When we look at the vast variety of religious calendars across the globe, including Buddhism, Hinduism, and many smaller devotional paths as part of our ancient observation of spring, this week brings a multiplicity of rituals, prayers, and celebrations. Devotion, ceremony, communal feasts, collective gratitude--all add to the richness of life and nourish the emotional and spiritual need of humanity. Yet sadly, religion can quickly cause division.
My point today as we enter this month and these Holy Days is to affirm a world of diversity--religious, cultural (which includes political), racial, gender/non-gender, physical, emotional, mental, and environmental diversity. As someone recently put it to me, "we all belong to a flock"; our flock lends stability and meaning to our lives. Yet, diversity is also our protection and strength. Diversity brings an expansion of understanding and the power of perspective that alters and shifts experiences, gives us options and feeds creativity. Creativity takes us beyond what we know. Diversity is the way of Nature that offers infinite potential. Sameness closes the door.
Watching young children on the playground who have yet to learn the labels of division, you can marvel at their joy in shared play, regardless of all the social markers and ideas that will eventually push on them to judge, to avoid, to defend and separate. Resolving the difficulties of our 21st century world, requires having all the pieces of the puzzle on the table--not removing pieces, including them. If we had the capacity to tap the collective spiritual fervor of all the religious celebrations of this one week in our hearts, without rigidity or fear, we could bring not just peace to ourselves, but to the whole of life. Our future world waits....(Susan Nettleton)
April 9, 2023
Happy Easter! Recently in Sunday posts, I have noted the collective energy of overlapping religious holidays this spring. All religions serve a larger dynamism in life, even as they fall short in our struggle for co-existence, peace, equality, and united solutions to global threat. There are seeds of Truth here that can be harvested from contemplation of ancient beliefs and spiritual stories, handed down through generations, that over time form the framework of religion. Contemplation is not superficial conclusions, or dismissals, or blind acceptance of someone else's opinions (including mine), but rather a meditative examination of the spiritual experiences of others and the stream of beliefs that have emerged with those experiences. This is a form of spiritual practice for those who are drawn to a personal, individual path in our modern age of accessible world literature.
So this week, I took a fresh look at the Easter story and what it might reveal to me with over 2,000 years of history. The Easter story doesn't really begin 2,000 years ago; it cross-references other stories, scripture and prophecy across an unknown number of years of the Old Testament. There are myths and legends from other ancient sects that have their own resurrection stories as well, weaving early concepts of life and death. The traditional understanding of Easter is summed up in the Bible (John, 3:16) as "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The crucifixion and agony of Jesus' death is seen as a Divine sacrifice that cancels out the sins of human beings, and grants them resurrection--the overcoming of death, interpreted as eternal life.
In the 21st century, the idea of purification through a sacrificial rite of physical suffering and killing is incomprehensible, although it is a part of human history. Surely there is deeper, timeless meaning here beyond the idea that God as the ultimate Causation has made "His Son" a human/divine object of sacrificial suffering and death to cleanse humanity. Jesus used the metaphor of God as a loving Father, not just of Jesus, but really of all Creation. In doing so he defined the relationship between humans and God in a form that was understandable, a God that cares and takes care of Its Creation. The element of universal love that includes a loving God, along with the call to "love one another", is a radical shift in the collective spiritual awareness of humanity. Here is the idea of a Creator in love with, and delighting in, Its Own Creation.
On Good Friday, I was in waiting in my car for someone, mindlessly looking at a concrete block wall with a massive covering of thick vines and sinewy branches that wound around corners and cracks like muscle on bone. I slowly brought the image in front of me into focus with an inner awareness of Jesus' words, "I am the vine, ye are the branches." (John 15:5) I saw that image as our branching individual consciousness, awareness--springing from the Vine--the Source of Consciousness, the Creative All. The Vine cannot be known in its entirety. It is too vast, but the death of Jesus initiated an opening, an expansion of creative potential within the individual that in turn, expands collective consciousness. That expansion is still unfolding in our understanding, as Love, not suffering. Love is the measure. The power of Consciousness both as God and as human being is revealed in everything that has been created, dissolved and created anew, all that has been lived up to this moment in 2023--a Cosmic Consciousness that remains present, living, in, with, and as all. Matthew 28-20: "...Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Susan Nettleton)
A short Rilke poem on Contemplation: https://onbeing.org/poetry/widening-circles/
For John Updike's call to plunge into the literal crucifixion and resurrection: https://thinktheology.co.uk/.../seven_stanzas_at_easter
And Mary Oliver's incisive description of Jesus: http://michaelppowers.com/wisdom/maybe.html
April 16, 2023
This week I spoke with someone who has lived with an intense spiritual focus for many, many years and now, late in life, a new struggle has arrived in understanding and following God's Will.
Our conversation has me reflecting on our human ideas that surround the word 'will' and in particular willfulness vs. willingness. In English, the word 'will' has several different meanings, but here I am looking at willfulness as a human state of determination and intention; we choose by an act of the mind or consciousness, to accomplish or experience something. That accomplishment of course may include disregarding or otherwise wrangling with the intention of others--both friends and foes, as well as natural forces, and even God. Our capacity for the conscious use of individual will, our intentionality, is one of the things that allows us to plan for the future and distinguishes us from the rest of the animal world (although, debatably, other animals have varying degrees of choice).
On the other hand, willingness implies cooperation and consent. We say, "yes', ideally with enthusiasm or at least, without resentment. Spiritually, the idea of willingness is an aspect of surrender. One of the sources of confusion with following God's Will or a spiritual directive is that our intention to live life as a spiritual process often requires saying "no" to aspects of the culture we live in, and to the behavior or ideas of others, in order to have the space to discern what is the best course in any given situation, or even in the routine and order of our daily life. Here willfulness--a clear determination and focus on our values, spiritual practice and intention-- can keep us on course. The inner life deepens and a new clarity dawns. Yet, as that happens we begin to realize that the spiritual life includes the Wholeness of life. That Wholeness is everyone and all aspects of yourself! Disregard of others in this Wholeness, disregard of your own inner or outer being, begins to undermine willingness, including spiritual willingness on a very subtle level. In fact, the deeper you go, the more subtle the thread of God's Will becomes. Until something cracks open to the vibrancy of All. (Susan Nettleton).
...And whether a man dispassionately
Sees to the core of life
Or passionately
Sees the surface,
The core and the surface
Are essentially the same,
Words making them seem different
Only to express appearance.
If name be needed, wonder names them both:
From wonder into wonder
Existence opens.
(The Way of Life, Lao Tzu--tr. Witter Bynner)
for more inspiration, follow the links
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../Nowuntilthe/index.html
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../YouWentAwayb/index.html
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../BelovedComes/index.html
April 23, 2023
Today follows Earth Week 2023, culminating in yesterday's Earth Day events around the world. The first Earth Day, originating in 1970, was focused on America and the need for environmental protection, but quickly expanded to a global level. Since that time, the effects of climate change has become more and more apparent, and solutions more and more politically charged.
In 1970, world population was cited as 3,695,390,336. Thus far in 2023, it is cited at 8,045,311,447. But the actual rate of growth has slowed; it was 2.06% in1970 and last year, with years of steady decline it was 0.83%. Is world population growing? Yes. Is population growth slowing? Yes. What does it mean? Is that a positive development, or a concerning shift? I have encountered debates and predictions on both viewpoints. This is one example of the problem of interpreting our data. Unfortunately, data can be overgeneralized and misused to sway reasoning and create division. Climate and environmental change is a vastly complex field. It requires both specialists in narrow fields and generalists who can synthesize. It requires cooperation, trust, and shared goals.
Currently we are hearing debates between those who see individual and collective behavior as the solution, through re-use, recycling, and decreased consumption (of fossil fuels as well as general consumerism), and those who dismiss that, to see only new technology as the world's answer. This kind of binary, all or nothing thinking only further fragments and divides, rather than considering synthesis. It neglects the value and power of consciousness, and especially collective consciousness, that can be both inclusive and diverse and profoundly intelligent.
What is your highest and best affirmation of this home called Earth? Beyond loyalty to specific places, groups, religious teachings--your longings and fears, gains and losses--how do you perceive and feel this ground. Now that the celebrations, speeches, performances and programs are done (whether your participated or not), what does your heart/mind, inner awareness, say about Earth? That is your consciousness. That is your contribution to us all. (Susan Nettleton)
For Larry Morris' poetic consciousness, from his volume, ON THIS SWEET EARTH:
April 30, 2023
Today I invite you to a day of gentleness. This year has sparked a great deal of emotional upheaval with the weather, as well as daily news that shouts for attention and sparks anger, sadness, and fear as a collective backdrop of daily life. While there really aren't shortcuts to finding lasting peace and stability in changing times, we can nourish ourselves with rest. I am not referring to sleeping well, but rather to a kind of emotional rest from intensity. This is not fighting with your feeling states or avoiding doing what you need to get done. It is about giving up the harsh and the hard, in order to cultivate the gentle and the soft. This is an ancient Taoist Principle from Lao Tzu.
"Water is the softest and most yielding substance. Yet nothing is better than water, for overcoming the hard and rigid, because nothing can compete with it. Everyone knows that the soft and yielding overcomes the rigid and hard, but few can put this knowledge into practice... " (J.H. McDonald tr.)
I am suggesting you let today be a gentle day, with an attitude of gentleness, first toward yourself and then with a taste of that, toward whatever you may encounter. The subtlety of such a practice quickly reveals itself, when you apply it to your spiritual practice. Can meditation be less rigid...more fluid? What about affirmations or prayer, can prayer be softened?--A softer affirmation, and a gentle approach to the avoided chore, or encounter. In the Taoist text, I Ching, (Book of Changes), the hexagram named The Gentle, is also The Penetrating. The idea here is again, the more you wrestle and try to force your own understanding of a situation or a relationship, the more you remain blocked. Like the metaphor of water that eventually wears through rock, a gentler, softer attempt to spiritually understand an experience or life issue will open consciousness. Gentleness cannot be forced. But if you let your emotions rest (anger, fear/urgency, sadness, even guilt) and trust a softer Sunday, you can know a new peace. (Susan Nettleton)
from Joy Harjov: https://poets.org/poem/eagle-poem
May 3, 2023
Announcement to all!
Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, May 21, 2023 with Dr. Susan Nettleton
Topic: The Safe and The Sacred
Time: May 21, 2023 11:00 AM Mountain Time
10:00 AM Pacific Time
If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: Hillsidesource.com, or message us on Facebook with your email address!
May 7, 2023
I have an underlying question for you today to consider as you read this Sunday's post: What makes you smile?" Since 1949, May has been designated as Mental Health Month in America. While Mental Health awareness has become a global initiative with other dates, programs, and sponsoring organizations that highlight the significance of mental health throughout the year, the May Mental Health Awareness Month brings a national campaign in America to spotlight its critical importance with outreach, educational programs, and a specific theme each year. This year's theme circles around the environmental context of our mental--and emotional--health. As such, I have been receiving many psychiatric/medical updates and various tool-kits that promote public awareness through individual aids to a healthy mental state in this current social environment. Rather than offering a simplistic rationale of "mental illness" to explain away violence in this country, caring for our own mental health gives us new strength and clarity to add our voice, to participate in a deeper collective process of action, healing and change.
Today, I am sharing two of the "tools" sent to me. From the Psych Congress community (a professional psychiatric network that offers conferences throughout the year) comes a "Kindness Challenge" for the rest of this month, aimed to create more positivity through rotating daily tasks:
Monday: Give a compliment to a stranger
Tuesday: Prepare a meal for someone you love
Wednesday: Cozy up with your favorite book
Thursday: Send a thoughtful text to a friend
Friday: Donate clothes or household items you no longer need
Saturday: Leave a nice note for a neighbor
Sunday: Spend some quality time with yourself
A related organization, Evolution of Psychotherapy (with a national conference each year), suggests taking a few moments every day to recognize the positives in your life, and do one thing each day that makes you smile. As you can see, the underlying ideas here are a positive outlook and a balance of social connections and self care.
Since my early years as both a psychiatrist and a minister, I have worked to bridge mental health, physical health, public health, and spirituality. To me, the essence of a positive approach is faith, with a cultivated awareness of the underlying Goodness of Life. I use the word 'cultivated' to reflect my sense that the more we consciously choose to see life as Good, the more a deeper understanding of the actual Joy of Creation is revealed (although it cannot always be communicated). In the world of mental health professionals, spiritually is seen as one component of a "healthy" life, but to me, it is the core from which all health arises. Either way, positivity with a smile, is one place to begin. (Susan Nettleton)
“It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
For further inspiration: https://allpoetry.com/.../15768221-The-Miracle-of-Morning...
May 14, 2023
“When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused.” Rainer Maria Rilke
Today is Mothers' Day. Although Mothers' day began as a way to honor and spend time with our own personal mother, when we fully expand the idea of Mothering, we find it embraces a quality of caring for and nurturing others, protecting, teaching, tending to the growth of another. Most people, in one way or another, have mothered someone or something. This implies an innate quality within the human being that is essential to our collective well-being. This care and concern carries with it a vulnerability to anxiety, over not just our own self-interests, but times of worry and fear for others.
As I wrote last week, May is also mental health month, which gives me the chance to highlight anxiety in the context of relationship and a sense of responsibility as well as love. Anxiety is the most common mental disorder in the U.S. and affect nearly 30% of adults (women more than men) at some point in their lives with a variety of triggers, symptoms and intensity. We all have times of fear and worry; these emotions are normal reaction to stress and important cues for us in managing our lives. Anxiety disorders though, involve excessive fear and worry out of proportion to the actual situation and hinder our ability to function. Anxiety is often made worse by avoidance of people, places, and activity and that avoidance adds further fuel to life's problems. The forms of anxiety include: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, specific phobias, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder and separation anxiety disorder. Just reading this list gives a clear sense of the avoidance that arises as a response. Avoidance further complicates life, feeding more anxiety. The solution lies in learning ways to calm the fear, change our thought processes, and often rearrange our relationships and lifestyle. Progressive desensitization through mental imagery and relaxation is also effective in overcoming phobias and other avoidance issues. In the role of 'mothering', we have the opportunity to support others in managing their anxiety, simply by talking about it.
There are so many tools available to conquer anxiety. Beyond the use of medication (which can be very effective when managed well), there is the gentle practice of meditation to calm both the mind and body, opening to a larger life. When anxious, we can learn to mother ourselves a bit more, as well as turning to a renewed vision of Mother Earth, Mother Nature, and the Divine Mother--all aspects of the transcendent we name God. Susan Nettleton
Follow the link for a poem of a maternal God: https://eewc.com/god-the-mother/
May 19, 2023
Announcement to all!
Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, May 21, 2023 with Dr. Susan Nettleton
Topic: The Safe and The Sacred
Time: May 21, 2023 11:00 AM Mountain Time
10:00 AM Pacific Time
If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: Hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address.
May 21, 2023
This Sunday's post is an excerpt of today's Zoom talk: "The Safe and the Sacred"....A safe space is defined as "a place or environment in which a person or category of people can feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, criticism, harassment or any other emotional or physical harm." It really can be a mental health tool for those who are marginalized or have gone through trauma. What is safe is a range of not in danger or not likely to be harmed: not damaged nor injured, or without risk or even disagreement. The Sacred, in the religious/spiritual sense, means something that is dedicated or set apart for the expression, or worship of a deity, or religious ceremony. It is consecrated and invokes spiritual respect and/or devotion, awe and reverence. and is not to be tampered with, not to be changed or challenged. Of course we also have the meaning of a secular kind of sacred, Monday Night Football or or taco Tuesday, or like the poem below, your car. The sacred then becomes a kind of hyper-value system that others cannot disrupt or mess with it that has it's own meaning for you that may or may not have spiritual meaning, or maybe it does it its own way that you cannot articulate, or is not really conscious. What makes something sacred? Within religious structures, history and religious authorities determine the sacred, often a fixed idea that can date back to centuries of dedication, passed on through generations.
When you grow up in a religious frame work, the sacred is integrated into your thought structure, and your experiences either solidify that or shatter that, (like unanswered prayer, or trauma when you cannot find the meaning), or you are exposed to a larger world beyond the family frame of reference. As individuals, we find the sacred through our own internal sense, just as we have the capacity to sense threat and to sense our own safety and the safety of others. As with the sacred, our sense of safety or threat is shaped, framed, honed by care-takers when we are young. But there is also a natural awareness--the sound of thunder, the lightening strikes, the slithering reptile, the scary mask, loud angry shouting, physical pain itself, based on our sensory perception but also a neurological translation of that sensation as threat, or for something else as comfort, the presence of others, a hug, a lullaby. So safety is a blend of knowledge--passed on to us, sometimes specifically taught and sometimes indirectly taught through modeling--and innate, some of which I'm sure is genetic, encoded 'knowledge' across generations that becomes instinct.
We know the sacred in the same way. We directly experience it, the way a kid senses threat and safety. It obviously is not a perfected sense in humans. The coding can be wrong, or incomplete, both in a collective sense, as well as for a specific individual. Circumstances change, yet genetic coding is mostly a process that develops over generations. And belief--what we have been taught by others--can be in conflict with our direct experience, which we have also been taught to some degree to either pay attention to, or ignore. And what we have been taught can become obsolete. To quote the Tao de Ching, "times change and with them their demands". Still I am affirming in 2023, the power and presence of the sacred that reveals itself through our intuitive and sensory perception...
For some of today's poetry, follow the link:
https://rolfpotts.com/sacred-stephen-dunn/
May 28, 2023
Buddhist poet Gensei (1623-1668) wrote: "The point in life is to know what’s enough–", that is to say, the measure of life's "necessities" for you, as an individual. As May comes to a close, so does Mental Health Month and this seems a good time to look at "what is enough". We are all subject in this digital age to an overload of blatant and subtle attempts at conditioning our emotions to feel we need whatever is cleverly packaged and promoted, whether it is an thing, a place, a practice, an ideology. One aspect of mental health is our capacity to sort through the noise of collective pressure and quietly listen to our own circumstances and inner direction that brings us balance, stability and resilience.
This is also Memorial Day weekend, a holiday that has evolved to mark two pinnacles of American culture--1) an actual Memorial Day of ceremony, prayer, sadness and pride, that honors those U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces and 2) a socially-shaped declaration of the beginning of summer--regardless of the solstice-- celebrated with outdoor get-togethers, travel, and general revelry. The somewhat fragile link between the two is the idea of celebrating the freedom, living the freedom gained by their sacrifice. The link is fragile because revelry often seeks to forget the cost, the human tragedy of war and conflict. Grief can drown us, plunging us into hopeless despair. Collectively and often unconsciously, we seek the same balance, stability and resilience. This polarity extends beyond the military, to the broader fields of life that include suffering and loss, as well as joy and delight.
Ultimately, spiritually, there is an over-arching Peace and Reconciliation of these opposites. That is not a puzzle that we can work-out with our intellect, nor by totally giving ourselves over to dark grief, nor to wild pursuit of pleasure. But we can keep a space inside our mind/heart free and open to 'That Greater Truth', until spiritual recognition finds us. And we can consider--as a unique individual--what is enough. Something in each of us, knows that. (Susan Nettleton)
For Gensei's poem, https://gladdestthing.com/poets/gensei
and for Memorial Day a Rilke poem, https://brktrail.com/dove/
June 4, 2023
June's arrival, sooner or later pulls us outdoors with a seasonal shift in weather and a collective spirit that offers more time to roam beyond our usual scenes and routines. Even if your work seems unrelenting, the collective spirit fueled by the sun's light and warmth pulls us outdoors. As one of my favorite lines from Larry Morris' poetry sings, "June is the Joy of God." Somewhat different than exploring what brings you satisfaction and smiles, the emphasis here is the Joyfulness of Creation itself.
Today I include a picture of a June discovery that burst into view for me on Friday. It was hiding in a nearby garden. (picture below) A quick online search suggested it was some mixed variety of an unusual succulent known as a brain cactus. This immediately sparked all sorts of questions in my mind about patterns that repeat in a variety of life forms (more than 'art imitating nature', nature 'imitates' itself). The brain cactus was a sudden reminder: While we, as aspects of the Divine, delight in our own human creativity, the Joy of God includes our wondrous delight of discovery. No matter how long we have lived, and how much we have traveled and experienced, we cannot possibly grasp the fullness of this Earth. We have more than enough for a life-time of discovery, without going further than our own well-known living space, our neighborhood, our circle of relationships and territory. When we add the power of creativity to constant discovery, our possibilities are endless.
This Sunday, life calls you to a new discovery. If you are caught in yesterday, you might miss it. The life-renewing joy of discovery might not pierce through a haze of emotions, if your mood is shadowed by disappointments, frustration, argument, despair--in your personal situation or in any given week's sobering events. Shake it off this June Sunday. Is life really limited to a constricted, well-worn personal space? Even if you cannot, for one reason or another, move outside it, let go of your boundaries and open to whatever pulls your attention right where you are. In the links below, 12th century Hindu poet, points to the Absolute in the white jasmine flower, and the "oil in the seed'; American poet, Mary Oliver (1935-2019) directs us to a path of discovery as we actually enter "what presents itself continually"--gifts from the Joy of God. (Susan Nettleton
Link to Mahadevi: http://poetry-chaikhana.com/.../Treasureinth/index.html
For Mary Oliver: https://poetryconnection.net/.../have-you-ever-tried-to.../
June 11, 2023
This Sunday, I encourage you to bring into sharper focus your inner directive(s) that shapes your life course. Earlier this year, an old friend texted me a strange message simply saying, "Tell me! What is coursing through your heart ? A voice asked me to ask you." Knowing this meant an inner voice, there was no need to pursue that thought. As to the question, it had been a long intensely busy day, with an even longer "to do" list waiting. I was tired, pre-occupied with various events, including world news, with no energy to explain. So I began by writing, "not possible to boil it down to a text", but then I remembered philosopher Blaise Pascal's quote, a favorite saying from my mentor in Psychiatry training,"The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know." I paused with the realization that all my rumination was a mental process that brought more fatigue and more thinking. So I asked myself: "Ok, what comes from the heart, at the root of now, what is my sustaining course?" The words were quick and clear (and I have used them often, in various forms in these Sunday posts). I ended the text with "Now it comes: Feed the light, feed the light, feed the light." That seemed to satisfy the questioner.
That sense of a sustaining course is what I mean by inner directive, a principle that you are committed to and live from. This can roughly refer to your guiding values, but has the added element of conscious agreement and your intent to live according to the "directive". We can have a kind of 'thumbs up' response to general good acts and social mores but that is not the same thing as an actual commitment to ourselves to live as an expression of such a value. In Sanskrit, this idea of commitment to an inner directive is called Sankalpa. 'San' refers to one's connection to the highest truth; 'kalpa' is a solemn vow. Although there are various levels and historic interpretations, Sankalpa refers to an intention formed by the heart and mind; a solemn vow that becomes a commitment to your highest truth or deepest meaning. In a recent Iyengar yoga publication, UC Berkeley literature professor and Iyengar yoga teacher, Michael Lucey discussed the ancient Sanskrit concept of Sankalpa in the context of Pascals' quote on the heart's reasons. A brilliant Renaissance mathematician and physicist, Pascal had a profound religious experience that altered his life in a time (1623-1662) of new scientific discoveries, new art forms, and expanded exploration of foreign culture. He walked the path of science and gave his heart to God.
Professor Lucey envisions Pascal's understanding of humans as "a combination of body and mind, of matter and spirit"; since both aspects are "embodied", the physical level (that fundamental building block of creation) may "offer a way for heart and mind to communicate." The focus of the article is the practice of yoga. But I read a broader, analogous process that applies to our individual (and unique) sense of meaning and purpose. To paraphrase Professor Lucey, sometimes, our intention begins in the mind, in the world of mental ideas, reasoning and logic, and our directive is to live that intention, through actual concrete physical activity, guided by an inner listening for the heart's support; keeping that inner channel open. Other times our intention springs directly from subtle intuition. The pull of the initial intuitive vision can fade, unless it is put into practice with habitual reinforcing activity that includes mental process like planning, scheduling, choices and goals.
Today I am encouraging you to consider your life intention, that inner directive. Perhaps you have several. Pick one, or let one leap out at you. Take a look at the goals you have set before you, big ones, or even one day's 'resolve to do list' to point you in the direction by raising the question, "why does this matter to me"--there is a value, a principle, an idea that has some degree of meaning for you, or you wouldn't act on it. Values are related to meaning; human satisfaction (and health!) is imbedded in our sense of meaning. Contemporary research has shown in varying ways, a clear link between our sense of meaning and our health and recovery. What is coursing through your brain? and What is coursing through your heart? (Susan Nettleton)
"We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart.” Blaise Pascal
For poetic perspective, follow the links:
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../housewasquie/index.html
June 18, 2023
Today is Father's Day in America, the complement to the older Mother's Day--a time to acknowledge the fathers, dads, stepfathers, grandfathers, and father figures in our lives. The motivating force in the organization of the first Father's Day (1910) is attributed to Sonora Smart Dodd in Spokane, who was raised by a widower with 14 children. It's easy to see why she saw the need to expand the idea of parental honor beyond Mother! Out of her experience, Father's Day recognizes such "fatherly" qualities as strength, guidance and provision of sustenance, shelter and protection. With our modern capacity to explore many different points of view from history and varying cultures across the globe, our sense of father can expand beyond our personal experience with our own fathers. This capacity is really a form of education that moves us beyond the process of growing up and childhood exposure to different kinds of family systems and different 'father' personalities from our own neighborhood and extended family circle. For those who are raised in Christianity, the idea of Father takes on the added dimension of God as the Heavenly Father. The implications and meaning of a Father God tend to be colored, at least subconsciously, by our own family experience. This is all to show the possibility of the wide range of ideas about fathers and what it means to be a father, let alone a 'good' father.
Still human nature tends to be heuristic, that is we simplify what seems too complex (and often emotionally challenging), in order to make our judgements and choices manageable for us. We create 'rules of thumb', short cuts in our thinking and decision-making process. This means we boil down the complexity of what kind of father, or man, is to be honored and in what way, to simplistic, manageable ideas. Our personal and/or collective ideas become the archetypal father.
Our archetypal judgement is usually interwoven with what is seen as a universal concept, but few people really take the time to sort through their personal layers, to have a realistic view of the bias they carry. Psychotherapist Carl Jung, theorized that archetypes are linked to primordial images and patterns found throughout literature and across cultures, creating a sense that these are indeed universal concepts, or even universal truths. But my post today is centered on your self-reflection and your truth. This Sunday offers an opportunity to step outside your rehearsed assumptions and familiar reflections, and instead turn to interior listening.
The 21st century presents us with ideas beyond our usual heuristics. We all carry (male and female) aspects within ourselves that rise to the archetypal Father role, as well as the Mother archetype. Are those roles really limited in the ways the short cuts suggest? Enter into Father's Day (or not) in whatever way you are socially inclined. But also take the time to discover the richer texture of your own inner life, the way you personally offer strength and guidance, the ways you sustain and protect life around you, beyond the scope of Father's Day. You too have fathered life. (Susan Nettleton)
For poems on Fatherhood follow the links: https://world.350.org/.../The-Peace-of-Wild-Things-by...
June 25, 2023
With the summer solstice last Wednesday, we officially entered summer on the longest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere. It's worth a moment of reflection on the wonder of the Earth as a whole, carrying both winter and summer simultaneously. It is our tilt that creates our seasons and those seasons in turn shape cultural variations. Yet we remain (and struggle to comprehend) one world.
As Earth spins on its tilted axis, it wobbles and cycles through variations in the axis. It is postulated that this is an aspect of a natural balancing system that responds to shifts and movement of various forms of mass across and within the planet. Shifts in mass cause deviations in the tilt, and change in the tilt affects climate. This month, the scientific journal Nature published an article describing how human water depletion from underground reservoirs is changing Earth's tilt. This research adds yet another dimension to global understanding of human activity and climate change. As disturbing as it sometimes seems, such research is essential in pinpointing human practices that must adapt and evolve to sustain the balance within an ecosystem that includes human activity.
In another science announcement this month, Frontiers in Public Health published a large study looking at the psychological impact of attending any type of live sporting event. The study showed that being a spectator improves well-being (life satisfaction and the feeling that life is worthwhile) and decreases loneliness. Past research has already demonstrated that higher life satisfaction brings greater physical health, improved aging, and lower death rates. While other studies have shown the benefits of actively playing sports, this one is for the cheering crowd, the audience, the fans--whether they go to the local little league game, or Dodger Stadium, or brave international World Championships--the social atmosphere and sense of belonging, the participation in the play of life, lifts the human spirit and our physical well-being.
Sunday is not the time to stress over the tilt of the planet, but rather, spiritually observe the tilt within yourself. Spirituality is the center from which the activity of life flows with your unique balancing system. Does that balance require more turning inward, or in the zest of summer, reaches to cheer life forward? Replenish what is drained dry; move the weight on your shoulders to a better location. Maybe the world really does mirror your consciousness and awaits your joy. (Susan Nettleton)
For baseball: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../analysis-of-baseball
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../first-girls-in...
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../57870/were-human-beings
For the spectator: https://gladdestthing.com/poems/a-singing-voice
July 2, 2023
July in America bursts onto the calendar with the energy of July 4--American Independence Day! For the 4th, Independence is virtually synonymous with Freedom, signifying the power of a newly formed country--fighting for independence from colonial rule--to structure its own government and set its own laws, based on new values that emerged from early settlers and ongoing revolutionary war.
On a more personal level, our individual sense of freedom evolves through our life experience. Freedom is tied to unfolding skill and growing independence, as we encounter and adapt to the responsibilities and demands of life. Freedom is an aspect of learning as well as self-mastery, skill, and creativity (arriving at our own unique ways of being). I recently watched my grandchildren in a preschool setting. The routine of the day was structured circle time: listening to the teacher, following the discussion, answering questions, etc., interspersed with periods of self-chosen activities, free to wander and explore project stations, play with peers, roam the playground, or move through rooms in expanding independence and the joy of freedom that held safety. This is a simplified model of our personal self discovering a freedom that includes social responsibilities, work, relationships, rules and procedures and limits, with areas of life that are "free time", which we personally define in varying ways. Ideally, community and/or society provide some structured "safety" that allows the time and space to explore new ways of being. We have not fulfilled the ideal, but rather its shape changes with each succeeding generation.
When we look at freedom from a spiritual perspective, we have the concept of free will: that is, a choice to follow a particular spiritual path, or turn away from a spiritual connection altogether. Turning away from spirituality can mean a range of things from dark despair to an existential freedom through affirmation of the human being and it's self-contained potential. A spiritual path on the other hand, opens possibilities of freedom beyond personal limitation and human struggle. Yet, beyond that is a dawning awareness that self-will is ultimately illusion, because there is no independent self. Freedom is awakening from separation. You are the world. You are the Beyond-the-World. You are Freedom. (Susan Nettleton)
For a sampling of insights on freedom from hillsidesource.com, follow the links:
https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/6/24/freedom
https://hillsidesource.com/affirmation-prayer-for-freedom...
https://hillsidesource.com/.../little-shack-chooses-freedom
https://hillsidesource.com/freedom-and-god
(click the red circle over the page to view article through Issuu.com)
July 9, 2023
As we move deeper into July, there's a strange mix of bursts of activity, sour news, worrisome weather, and a pressure to finish what must be finished before life accelerates in the fall.
That had become the feel of Southern California as the July 4th holiday passed, and I chewed over ideas for today's post. Then last night I saw something that swept away such thoughts. I had to make a late evening shopping run at the end of a very long, busy day, and as I turned the corner onto the main boulevard leading home, I saw in the darkening row of buildings, a lit marquis from one of the churches along the road. Usually, the large churches in the neighborhood fill their signs with sermon titles, dates and times of service, and names of the speakers, but this sign glowed white with only 1 word in black--4 letters--which immediately flooded me with peace. It simply said, "REST".
Even now, with more to-do lists in front of me, I have to smile at the irony of the power of that sign. I have been in ministry for 39 years and when Hillside built it's first church in the Heights in Albuquerque (1986), we too installed a marquis, and I took on the job of putting up the weekly Sunday notice. Like most ministers we strove to have attention catching titles. (Probably the most audacious was Larry Morris' "Bullet Train to Nirvana".) By contrast, I now appreciate the impact of simply announcing "REST". But what flooded through me at the stop light was the clarity of the spiritual meaning. This is not a call to just resting the body, or the mind, or seeing that you get a good night's sleep. This is a call to awareness that all things, ALL things, rest in the unfathomable Cosmic Order. ALL things, rest in God. As St. Augustine wrote, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.”
So spiritual rest is stopping the struggle, including the struggle to be our "best self" in order to simply be and trust the larger field of God. Often that feels like a reaching, and an intuitive stirring, that is both longing and peace. It becomes a resting in acceptance, and the deepening assurance of Good. With that rest, we learn to trust the promptings of our own hearts, still 'resting' while fully participating in life as who, what and where we are. Let today bring you spiritual rest. (Susan Nettleton)
For poetry follow the links: https://allpoetry.com/Moments-Indulgence
https://www.seedsofsilence.org.uk/pax---dh-lawrence.html
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../RestBeTaken/index.html
from Larry Morris, https://hillsidesource.com/destiny-poem
July 16, 2023
In a week marked by both extreme heat and devastating rainfall across the globe, it seems to me a good Sunday to write about comfort. Not the kind of comfort that promotes complacency, but the comfort that allows self care and gives space for emotional stability. Soothing comfort aids resiliency and strengthens our capacity for positive action in a changing world. What or who brings you comfort?
Learning to self soothe begins when we are babies and continues as we encounter more and more of life's complexities. But an important part of self-soothing is being aware of our external comforts, as well as our inner ways of easing the stress of life. Environment is an aspect of this and environmental research shows that in general, both subjective and biological factors shape our comfort. Our sense of comfort, for example in heat exposure, involves our biologic response to temperature, as well as our personal psychological perspective on what is comfortable. With extreme heat, the physiologic takes over and psychologically we need to be aware of and accept the body's limits. This is why local public health departments strive to educate and warn citizens about extreme temperature changes. It is not just our ideas that contribute to stressors. Each human body has parameters that form consistent, scientifically measurable, collective responses. But our minds add flavor and meaning to that and can modulate, if not regulate, the overall impact. Taking comfort is not a superficial fix; it is an aspect of healing and repair.
Religious scholar Evelyn Underhill wrote, “We mostly spend [our lives] conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have, and to Do. Craving, clutching, and fussing, on the material, political, social, emotional, intellectual—even on the religious—plane, we are kept in perpetual unrest: forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in, the fundamental verb, to Be: and that Being—not wanting, having, and doing—is the essence of a spiritual life.” What brings comfort to our sense of Being? In Buddhism, the root of suffering is the demand for permanence; comfort comes through the understanding that life is change. It may seem strange to see comfort in impermanence, but whatever may be the situation that disturbs you, "this too shall pass." Hinduism as a complex religious culture with the concepts of karma and maya (the veil that creates illusion, obscuring the real), through multiple deaths and rebirths, offers the comfort of a larger life in the trials of any given lifetime. Islam, Judaism and Christianity offer in different forms, assurances of God's Grace. In all religions, or in our personal practice, ritual, prayer and community offer spiritual comfort.
Yet, there is also the unique Being and personal experience of each of us. As I write, I hear a bird faintly through closed windows. The sound is incredibly sweet. It reminds me despite the frightening heat and storms, there is a sweetness to Nature. The grand myth of Noah's arc and the flood comes to mind. The dove returns, the waters recede, and the rainbow appears as God's promise..."while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." So I have moved from my insulated typing to a faint recognition of beauty as birdsong, and the unspoken mystery behind the world of nature; from individual comfort to an archetypal image of dove and rainbow, with deepening assurance, that although everything changes, and human beings are far from perfect, life is resilient, and from my perspective, beneficent.
Let this day lead you to a new awareness of what brings you comfort and eases your way.
For poetic play on comfort: https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../oatmeal-by-galway-kinnell/ and https://allpoetry.com/Ode-to-My-Socks
July 23, 2023
Today caps another week of global extreme heat. Warnings, news, and interpretations of the sustained heat now saturate the internet. As in the early weeks of the Pandemic, people across the globe are struggling to process new danger and come to grips with changing realities. Although the issue of climate change is far from new, a growing awareness of the seriousness of extended extreme heat cracks the shell of denial. For many, rising temperatures are met with rising fear. While fear is a natural reaction to threat and in it's own way protective, it is essential to move beyond fear to discover what is required of us to not just survive, but thrive. This heat wave will pass; the impact will linger. Life, as we have collectively experienced it, is shifting.
In the early phases of the pandemic, there was confusion and fear, rapidly followed by all sorts of theories and conflicting strategies. Group identifications spawned conspiracies, as well as anger and denial, looking for someone (including opposing forces) to blame. While pandemics had existed historically, the Covid-19 virus was an extraordinary threat--unknown, deadly, and confounding. Today, we have powerful vaccines, effective medication and treatment protocols. Unquestionably, the solutions that emerged involved global effort and massive scientific exchange, along with the heroic efforts of key essential workers that sustained social order and care during lock-downs of the world's great cities. Those scientific discoveries, made in response to this initially baffling virus, have now initiated new healing possibilities and treatments in other diseases as well.
My point here is that while we (once again) face a vast range of ideas, opinions, and predictions, there is much about the dramatically changing weather that is unknown. Yes, compared to the arrival of Covid-19, there is already a degree of accumulated scientific climate research and data, and yes, there are technologies that are being developed, and policies that are being drafted. But it is wise, and I think essential, to realize that as we struggle to adapt, we are actually struggling with the unknown and emerging new norms, yet to be established. Together, globally, we are reaching to bring forth the new.
Spirituality itself at its deepest core is a plunge into the unknown. It is this willingness to enter the unknown that takes us beyond the dead past of a prescribed path to a living discovery that is Now. Life's patterns shift and we with them. That is what living is. (Susan Nettleton).
For poetry and the unknown process:
https://poetry-chaikhana.com/.../PoemWaitsat/index.html
July 30, 2023
Today as July is ending, despite the continued sweltering days, I am reflecting on a new wave of gratitude. In past years, mid summer was associated with ease and the time to venture out and explore, but July 2023 is now alarmingly named globally as the hottest month in recorded history. It has not been an easy, nor carefree few weeks. But in reflection, I had several experiences in this heat that filled me with both gratitude and awe. Perhaps the extreme heat, along with all it's dire warnings and interpretations can be met with a broader range of possibilities through the kind of gratitude that inspires the human heart to creative adaptation and discovery.
On a recent trip through Arizona, I entered the Mohave desert at dawn to avoid the summer's predicted 122 degree heat. I traveled and returned through the bland, hazy commercial areas of the 2 entry points on I-40 (Needles and Barstow). That highway stretch is at first just emptiness. Then, it unexpectedly opens to this vast beauty of mountains in shades of reds, pinks, grays, blues, purples, greens, all brushed with tones of brown earth and sand. Each mile brings a new perspective; each curve in the road can expose yet another fantastic boulder or rock tower or hoodoo. The distant mountains shimmer and a mystical haze streaks across their base in shifting tones of wondrous beauty. There was no way to stop, since the car was pursued by the coming heat, but still, I drank it all in. And I was grateful to feel the mystery of life again, to see this stretch of nature's magic again that has been a landmark of my spiritual path. The drive itself becomes a reflection of that journey: Marked at either end by the two towns of worldly material needs and pursuits, the road spectacularly opens to this marvel of ancient beauty and silent depth, that in an hour or two, dissolves again into the world of people, place and things. This is the living, evolving earth.
My next wave of gratitude came while on I-210, headed to the eye doctor to pick up my contact lenses. There was a typical L.A. sudden slow down with cars and trucks quickly maneuvering for a lane advantage, while we all dealt with the heat! When traffic reached the stop and go, stop and go level, I looked across lanes and saw truck after truck after truck, all sizes and brands, and I was suddenly flooded with the realization of how much our lives are dependent on deliveries and the men and women that navigate the highways, the deserts, the weather with all it's changes--not just the heat--in our urban maze of transportation. Through out the Pandemic, throughout storms, upheavals, shortages, these people-- drivers and stockers, manufacturers and growers--delivered what they could. This was another kind of gratitude, gratitude for the human factor: for stamina, determination, creativity, bravery and care.
There have been other events this month--family stories of the coming generation, already at sincere, imaginative work and design for new technology and breakthrough concepts for meeting the challenges of the 21st century. As in any process, we can grumble and despair and blame, or we can positively participate and contribute gratitude for the Good that is here and the Good, even now, on it's way. (Susan Nettleton)
"When the image of the tree and the image in my heart meet, it's enough." Larry Morris
For more poetic gratitude: https://poetrying.wordpress.com/.../today-i-was-so-happy.../
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../when-the-sun-return
https://thevalueofsparrows.wordpress.com › 2015 › 07 › 29 › poetry-that-day-by-denise-levertov
August 1, 2023
Announcement to all!
Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, August 13, 2023
with Dr. Susan Nettleton
Topic: Prayer as Creation
Time: August 13, 2023 11:00 AM Mountain Time
10:00 AM Pacific Time
If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to
attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: Hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address. Hope to see you on the 13th!
August 6, 2023
Today, I invite you to a day of gentleness. With the harshness of this summer's heat and the harshness of the political scene and news that constantly aims for the jarring and the sensational, a day of gentleness can bring relief. The place to begin, of course, is our own immediate environment, outer and inner. Disengaging from the "shouting" sounds/scenes of the day, we can choose to spend at least some portion of the day in exploring the gentler side of who we are. For me, that begins with a reminder of inner quiet. The place you find yourself may not actually be quiet at all, but it is possible to turn down your inner volume, including agitation, to find a calming moment for your thoughts, as well as physical and emotional tension.
Gentleness springs from an inner calm that does not need to control life. Whether life around you is expressing as people or other creatures, nature in placid or turbulent forms, or as the use of the mechanic/technological world, if we are calm, we move with a lighter touch, a softer voice. Gentleness, in turn, brings calm. When we over-ride irritation and frustration, to meet life with care and appreciation, we are calmer, even with our own mistakes. Often a pressured and abrasive, or critical attitude, springs from our underlying (and perhaps unconscious) will to oversee all outcomes--have things turn out our way; have people respond and act according to our standards and our longings. Gentleness is care, not control.
Steven Mitchells's translation of Psalm 131, points to this connection between will, calm and gentleness, beginning with: "My mind is not noisy with desires, Lord..." and ends with "My soul is as peaceful as a child, sleeping in its mother's arms." {Stephen Mitchell, A Book of Psalms, Selected & Adapted from the Hebrew, HarperCollins Publishers, 1993".} Explore your capacity for gentleness. Discover how your own gentle nature can open doors that lead (in the words of T.S. Elliot) "Into another intensity... a further union, a deeper communion." And a calmer life. (Susan Nettleton)
For the Biblical Psalm 131 NIV (Steven Mitchell's trans. is not available online) https://www.bible.com/bible/111/PSA.131.niv
For T.S. Elliot's stanzas: https://fishfly.wordpress.com/.../the-last-stanza-of.../
For Larry Morris: https://hillsidesource.com/the-gentle-way-is-best https://hillsidesource.com/.../2018/6/26/spiritual-warrior
August 13, 2023
Today's post is an excerpt from this morning's Zoom talk: Prayer as Creation. ( In a week or two the talk will be on the website hillsidesource.com audio files, found in the Resources section.)
This morning we are looking at Prayer as Creation. A few weeks ago, I felt I wanted to bring us back to prayer, as a response to the summer's heat crises and the flooding, along with the recent huge cultural shift to rapid escalation of AI development and use. What finally settled in me, is an awareness of prayer as Creation. As there are many forms of religion and spiritual practices; prayer is defined and practiced in many different forms... The simplest common definition is addressing God, asking for what you feel you need. A more expansive definition is communication with God, an exchange--question/answer, perhaps discussion or imagined discussion. The 17th century mystic, St. Theresa of Avila defined it as “an intimate friendship, a frequent conversation held alone with the Beloved”. But in the context of this talk--Prayer as Creation--although our prayer life may involve either or all of these, I am getting at something more. And though affirmative prayer, practiced in New Thought, aims to create one's own solution to a need or circumstance, it often falls short of Prayer as Creation Itself, missing our depth of participation in Spiritual Creation, the ongoing activity that sustains life by bringing new and renewed forms and situations into manifestation.
To get a handle on this we can look at ideas about the movement of prayer... a more overarching idea of prayer that circles from God to humans, and humans back to God. Prayer originates with God who "implants" the desire within the person for the object of prayer, for the reason to pray, and the need, the longing, the want, leads to prayer, ignites the prayer. Unexpected agitation (the movement of the waters of the unconscious) can provoke the need for prayer. Even in Liturgical prayer, the origin is perceived as coming through Divine revelation. In Indigenous cultures, some Being brought the prayer or the chant or it was given through visions or dreams. The Divine brings the way of prayer, but also creates the need. The need forms the prayer that reaches for connection and healing or fulfillment.
Are all prayers from God, or just some? In other words, an idea arises in you, wanting something other than what is Divine will. Having learned to ask or petition, or having learned affirmative prayer, you pray for, beg for, or claim over and over that which is not given. Or maybe you do bring it forth, but it backfires. One can argue that these are refining experiences.
Someone who is sincere in their attempt at surrender to a larger Good, learns from failed prayer. It is a process. If spiritually you are in surrender mode, the essence of difficulty leads to deeper understanding. You go deeper for solutions, and begin to change your course. There are further depths to this--prayer and stillness (receiving the call to prayer is not necessarily conscious, rather it is absorption.) Surrender can mean not consciously knowing. So there is a point where you trust communion and exchange beyond words.
Can we make a mistake? Emmett Fox wrote, that sincerity and the will to good count. Even if you misinterpreted or get the inner pull muddled, you will be ok.
For some of this mornings poetry follow the links: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../the-work-of-happiness
August 20, 2023
As I write this post for Sunday, (now only Saturday), I am waiting. This summer's posts have circled around ways to find Peace in a time of extreme heat, climate change and political battles. By turning our attention away from the sensational and often violent stories that fill the news, we can explore spiritual practices that ground us in inner equilibrium through a different kind of fulfillment. I have urged you to explore your capacity for gentleness and consider prayer as participation in a process of ongoing Creation. Now, here in Southern California, we wait for a storm's arrival--the remnants of Hurricane Hillary--that space of the unknown, currently filled with interviews, dire predictions, and warnings of destruction.
Waiting, the space of in-between, is a powerful factor in human experience. Philosopher Alan Watts wrote of the trap of Western cultural conditioning that continually postpones the joy of life by a focus on goals and stages of achievement. In a sense, we are always waiting for life to begin some day...after I graduate...after I get that dream job...when I meet my soul mate, after we have children...when I am financially free...when I recover from this illness...when I retire. Watts' point was that life is not a destination; it's a journey and a dance--all of Life. Life is the experience of living, including the buildup, the storm, and it's aftermath, it's changes and it's surprises, and the new routes it opens. Holding that perspective, it's all a marvel, even the times perceived as failure and loss.
On the other hand, waiting is some times the defining quality of a moment, the interval of time when events and circumstances, beyond our conscious participation and control are being formed, unseen. I remember a spiritual gathering in Europe where a young woman, several months pregnant with her first child flew from India with her husband to meet with our mutual spiritual teacher, U.G. Krishnamurti. She was having some frightening symptoms and many had discouraged her to travel, but she felt the trip was important for her child's future, and took the risk. During a group discussion, she described what she was going through, and asked one of the doctors there for his opinion. I was shocked when he bluntly gave her a dire summary of how her pregnancy would end, concluding she most likely was losing the baby and quite likely would die herself. Everyone became quiet, processing his ominous speech. U.G. was silent. I personally thought it unconscionable to predict such an outcome in a public setting, with no other medical exam or data. In the silence she looked at me, and said, "Susan, you are a doctor, you have been quiet, what do you think?" Rather than fight the other doctor, or give my biased reassurances also without an exam or tests, I told her, as gently as I could, the difficult truth: "You have to wait."
That was about 18 years ago and her daughter is now a lovely young woman, following her own path. In Hermann Hesse's story of Siddhartha (Buddha), during a changing phase of life, Siddhartha seeks employment. His potential boss, in a kind of interview, asks him, "What can you do?" Siddhartha states his main qualifications: "I can think, I can wait, I can fast." Here is solid competency--a being who can reason, formulate plans, and problem solve. One who also has the patience to let things unfold and reveal what is needed, by waiting. And one who can manage himself, his appetites and emotions, who is not ruled by hunger for more than is given.
You today may not be waiting on a weather storm, but likely Sunday morning can often bring a sense of waiting. Yet, within the waiting, life is moving. This is a day to greet it. Where is it leading you now? (Susan Nettleton)
For poetry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../i-am-waiting...
August 27, 2023
This August, I have been reflecting on inner equilibrium as we move through climate challenges, and social/political events. Inner equilibrium is another way of visualizing emotional balance. The body has it's physical balance mechanisms that involve our senses in coordination with our muscles and skeleton. It also has a highly complex chemical balance that involves the coordination of multiple organs, glands, and nerve pathways. Emotions can be both a product of and a cause of physical and chemical imbalance. The body is singularly magnificent in its complexity. As we become aware of our individual body in the greater context of a changing ecosystem,--an awareness that we are a part of a larger field of planetary life--balance takes on another dimension. Planetary life is an aspect of the still larger solar system, and then galaxy, and then cosmos. If we think of just ourselves maintaining inner equilibrium, we have a very limited view, unless we consider (in the background) this equilibrium as a spiritual process. We are certainly not in charge of cosmic balance. We do our part and trust the larger Reality.
Today though, I encourage you to consider maintaining emotional equilibrium in a time of change with an attitude of optimism. Optimism is not an emotion as such, but rather a mental assumption or belief that, as I put it: "Things have a way of working out ". By "things" I mean life situations, and by "working out" I mean working out well, of benefit to you and those around you, your slice of Life, that ultimately includes the Whole. It is an expectation of Good. For me that implies the underlying, unfolding, spiritual reality that we can turn toward--or actually that leads us to that which is Highest and Best--as active participants in Life. And there is a link between psychological optimism and spiritual optimism.
While some people are simply born optimistic (less than 30%), optimism can be acquired. Psychologist Martin Seligman coined the phrase "learned optimism" in response to his own research on "learned helplessness", sparking a new theory that optimism could also be cultivated and learned. His model included shifting thoughts of blame and helplessness in adversity to an attitude of understanding and competency, with positive expectations of resolution. Over 30 years of research demonstrates that optimism can be developed and that it offers substantial health benefits, emotionally, mentally and physically. It also correlates with success in achieving goals and adapting when we do not.
Learned optimism isn't just about surface level affirmations, nor glossing over our fear, frustration, anger or disappointments. It is about exercising our choice to examine habitual reactions of self blame as well as blaming others, acknowledge those reactions, and widen our perspectives, ultimately choosing to reaffirm ourselves, others, and life in general. It's not about life always going "our way". Or life going back to the way things used to be. It's about responding to events with the confidence to face challenges, regroup, and develop plans, trusting your adaptability. Moving with changes, adapting to new information, and allowing those around us to exercise their choices are all aspects of optimism, and aspects of an unfolding Good. In future posts, I'll come back to optimism and it's link to inner equilibrium. For today, take some time to consider a fresh optimistic view of a particular challenge in your life right now. Remember, your life extends to the Cosmos. Things are working out. (Susan Nettleton)
For optimistic poetry, follow the links: https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php%3Fdate...
https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../morning-poem-by-mary-oliver/ http://www.ellawheelerwilcox.org/poems/poptimi4.htm
September 3, 2023
Tomorrow is Labor Day in America. This is a holiday legislated in 1894 to recognize the essential role of workers in the fabric of our society and the struggles they have faced to gain dignity, fair wages, benefits and protection. Those conflicts continued to resurface, as new technology shifted the expectations of society and work roles in the late 19th century and throughout the 20th. In 2023, the rapidly expanding role of Artificial Intelligence and the increasing hazards of climate change bring renewed struggles to American workers. The concept of "work" continues to evolve.
There are countless aspects to the idea and meaning of work. In the early formation of psychiatry, Freud wrote, “Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness, ” thereby establishing the significance of productive work in the human psyche. Work is one of the ways that we maintain inner equilibrium. Yet, work conflicts have the power to disrupt our emotional balance. Culturally, work is connected to social identity. Work can mean birth to something new--work as a creative process (we use the "labor" to describe childbirth). And both Eastern and Western religious traditions have the concept of "work is worship". Spirituality is not just a matter of ideas, emotions and belief, but ultimately means action in congruence with those beliefs.
Once, while driving through a busy shopping area with my spiritual teacher U.G, a young woman--maybe still in her teens--stepped off the curb. midway through a street with no crosswalk or light, in a hurried attempt to cross through the traffic. U.G. (with the window rolled up) spoke to her with sharp concern, "Don't do that girlie. You still have to contribute your share!" Rationality told me she could not possibly have heard him, but she immediately pulled back and waited. We drove on, but his phrase was reverberating in me: "You still have to contribute your share." Share of what? Contribute to Who/What? Different possibilities floated through my mind. Finally I was left with the clarity that whatever "Life" is, we each as unique individuals, play a part in the Whole of Creation. Work is participation and contribution.
Tomorrow is your holiday in the larger field of workers and labor in 2023. Enjoy it. Today, is ripe for reflection: Your life--as it is--is your contribution. (Susan Nettleton)
Poetic thoughts on Work: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse...
https://allpoetry.com/.../14373945-To-be-of-use-by-Marge...
September 10, 2023
In this month's exploration of inner equilibrium and an optimistic attitude, I came across a short piece that I had written over thirty years ago on fear:
"Today, we can make a choice to give up any fear of life and fear of the world around us. We can dare to stop believing that the world is a dangerous place. We can affirm our Oneness with Life and its underlying harmony. We can learn to rest in simple assurance that Life takes care of Life, and therefore, we are cared for; we are Loved. We let that great Truth be the healing of every worry, every anxiety, every fear. We are at Peace, because Life is One."
A few days ago, I was mulling over the relevance of this piece in the light (or dark) of the world of 2023. Can I truly offer you such a view point this September? Even after my morning affirmation, when I turned to the business of an unfolding busy day, I felt a gap between the uneasiness of these times and the peace that underlies positive expectations. I pulled together my breakfast and coffee, then realized I hadn't yet seen what the weather was bringing. I opened the blinds to morning sunlight and a clear blue sky that engulfed everything in a bright flood of freshness! The shift in perspective was staggering--I stood fixated at the sink window, watching the green leaves of a tree just inches away, dance over the glass. Here was my morning affirmation made real: This day is New. "As the sun makes it new, day by day, make it new. Yet again, make it new."
Revelation, sudden or gradual, is beyond our thinking structure. In other words, revelation is not thinking; it is a leap beyond the limits of our thoughts, expectations, affirmations, analyses, into understanding or 'seeing'. As the spiritual adage puts it, "Enlightenment is an accident, but spiritual practice makes us accident prone." Fear is part of the body's natural protective response to danger. Yet, fearful thinking and rehearsal of that thinking, pushes us further and further away from what is in front of us and our capacity to consider each new situation in its actual context. A mind that is open to more than one perspective and anticipates positive, creative solutions is not focused on fear, nor on yesterday's outlook.
An optimistic nature (and outlook) seizes the newness of the day--you don't know what the future holds, why not expect the Good, today. (Susan Nettleton)
For Poetry, follow the links. https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../the-cure-by-ginger-andrews/
September 17, 2023
Sunday night begins Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism. This is the Day of Atonement, a day of fasting and asking God's forgiveness dating back to the time of Moses. Those who participate in the Atonement process, are encouraged to turn away from all worldly pursuits to focus solely on their relationship to God in sincere repentance for moral and spiritual trespass. Atonement means doing something that undoes or makes up for wrongdoing by repairing what harm may have been done, or compensating through some substitute conscious activity of good. Many religions have rituals and ways of atonement as an aspect of seeking and finding forgiveness and making amends. Ultimately, these rituals show our recognition that as human beings, we all make mistakes and those mistakes can contribute to the dissatisfaction and hardship of our lives and the lives of others. We make mistakes. We regret. But we do not have to stay in that space of suffering.
This month, I have been exploring achieving inner equilibrium through an optimistic attitude or mindset. Optimism that genuinely brings equilibrium does not mean we ignore or gloss over our mistakes, our trespasses, and harm we may have done to ourselves or others, intentionally or unintentionally, real or imagined. Rather, our optimism expands to include human error and the power of forgiveness and making amends. Optimism affirms the dignity of ourselves and others; mistakes can be overcome. We can find humility, without humiliation. And we can offer that to others as well, by accepting their atonement.
Today, tonight, tomorrow are all potent times for self forgiveness. Self forgiveness, forgiving others, even forgiving God as we struggle to understand this world, are all interwoven with a deep acceptance that we too are forgiven. We emerge renewed. Luke 6:37,"Forgive and you shall be forgiven." Begin with yourself. (Susan Nettleton). For poetry click the links below:
https://yourmindfultribe.org/.../forget-about...
http://ayapasuprep.weebly.com/.../pp14_-_adrienne_rich...
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../happiness-56d21cb4b54e9
September 24, 2023
For info on our Oct. 1 Sunday Zoom Service with Dr. Susan Nettleton visit hillsidesource.com
Welcome to Autumn 2023! Seasonal shifts bring their own movement and energy and that shift often means welcomed change. But, change can be disruptive as well. As I reflected on this Sunday's post, I suddenly realized I had mixed up the dates for last Sunday's post. I wrote on forgiveness and amends, mistakenly naming last Sunday as Yom Kippur 2023--I was a week ahead! Tonight at sundown, 2023 Yom Kippur begins. With a dose of my own self-forgiveness, I now point you to an extended space of forgiveness and atonement/amends to carry us into fall.
The mistake made me aware of another aspect of inner equilibrium and optimism--our capacity to wait. Patience, as well as forgiveness, is easier when you hold positive expectations of an unfolding Good. In New Thought practice, we have the idea of Divine Timing. Divine Timing isn't the same as our demand for Now, or our practice of being here Now (although the practice of pulling our thoughts and emotions back to what is presently in front us at this moment, is a corollary, a companion to the practice of patience). Divine Timing is the outworking of Good. That outworking enfolds the many factors of events, people, relationships, emotions, ideas, expectations...to sum it up, factors of consciousness...that unfold over and through our sense of time.
We can experience timeless happenings and sudden, seemingly instantaneous, events that change our lives, yet most of life blossoms over time. The rhythm of 'a year' and changing of seasons mark time. When we risk nurturing a quiet trust in the Spiritual Good of Life, and a quiet trust in our own capacity to affirm the Highest and Best for ourselves and others, we relax into Divine Timing. The struggle and the rewards of positive patience are beautifully reflected in Jack Correu's latest Little Shack of Insight blog post at hillsidesource. com. I want to share it with you this morning. Consider the mystery of Divine Timing unfolding in your life, bringing you the gift your heart reaches.toward. (Susan Nettleton)
The Little Shack Hears Fall, by Jack Correu. "The little shack has been in hibernation all summer, the hottest I have ever been through. The temperature here has reached 109 degrees at the highest--103,104,105 consistently--for the past three months! Extreme drought has had most tree leaves brown or dead. The wildlife has suffered immensely. But NOW!, the first hint of fall with rain and cooler weather. Before summer hit, I had received a Cochlear implant. Throughout this extreme heat, I was adjusting to the new device. I can now hear the changes. I hear the rain, the birds, the wind; sounds I haven't heard in decades! Nature is whispering to us her Love. She is whispering: "Be with me now, smell my scent, drink my waters, and tell me you understand my cycles and Love me as your partner. Her truth is intoxicating. From the Little Shack: Embrace it All!"
'Let these words fly through time
to someone coming
you know who you are...
This Love has nibbled on your ear,
whispering secrets
That doesn't make sense
to anyone else'
- RUMI
September 26, 2023
Announcement to all!
Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, October 1, 2023
with Dr. Susan Nettleton
Topic: In the World, Of the World, and For the World
Time: October 1, 2023 11:00 AM Mountain Time
10:00 AM Pacific Time
If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to
attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact pageon our website: hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address!
October 1, 2023
This is an excerpt of this morning's talk: In the World, Of the World and For the World. This topic arose as we all processed recent global catastrophes and threats of climate change over this summer of 2023. On one hand, processing these events even as spectators, becomes overwhelming, but in another way, disaster fatigue sets in and we can't react. Yet, the underlying issue of climate change, linked to weather disasters is pressing on everyone, I thought, how can I approach this spiritually, and the phrase that pressed on me was "be in the world but not of the world", coming out of the New Testament. I have used that quote in talks and classes, but what pressed on me in September was NO-- this is about being IN the world and OF the world and, FOR the world.
Our concern this morning is the world of planet earth, our globe. We are far more sophisticated when it comes to our capacity to consider a global process than previous generations. The turning point in collective consciousness was technology that allowed that first picture, the blue marble, taken in 1972, 21,000 miles from earth, by the crew of Apollo 17 on the way to the Moon. No one on this planet had ever seen such a photo of the Earth until then. (Now we have a entire field of astrophotography.) So when I say "IN the World", this is the world. Yet, it is not so easy to absorb what that means in terms of a changing Earth. For some, the Blue Marble spurred tales and technological dreams of escaping a dying planet to find a new home somewhere else, when we've trashed this one. Most of us though, continue to breakdown the meaning of world, into smaller bits that impact us directly: Our locality, our weather, our community, friends, family--Our health--Our spirituality as our interior world....
A spiritual perspective on the world, often assumes cultural values of accumulation, as well as the struggles or desire for personal power and status. Realistically, we are OF that world, we are born into it and our world's beliefs, rules, behaviors, social order shape us. Even if we are raised outside of cultural values, we have to learn to navigate the world of culture all around us. We are stuck in it and shaped in it in ways we don't always realize, including our ideas about the planet, and our own mortality. The things and people of the world are subject to mortality, sooner or later we go, and apparently earth will go too, in time, although we really can't grasp the 1-1.5 billion years that science offers as the projected continued life of our planet. In the face of impermanence, people find comfort in "NOT being of the world," belonging "elsewhere", defined in varying ways.
Yet, we are IN the world, OF the world; the world supports us. What are we doing FOR the world? This is not just about social consciousness, nor activism in the sense of a cause; it may mean that for some, but not for every one. Doing for the world is most likely to have real meaning when you have come to grips with being FOR the world. Being FOR the world is a commitment to showing up and caring. Ultimately it is about embracing life. Here. On Earth. (Susan Nettleton)
Poems from this morning:
October 8, 2023
This week I urge you to be lighter of heart. I barely had time to reflect on this message, when news hit of war in Gaza, bringing more division, fear, anger and sorrow, that seems an inevitable part of 21st century life. Yet, on deeper reflection, today remains a good day to cultivate a lighter spirit. We need spaces and times of lightness, as the days gradually grow shorter and the nights darker. October can bring the slanted golden light of Autumn. When golden light meets a vibrant blue sky the world is magical and mystical and well...delightful. Don't let the heaviness of the human struggle take away the wonder of life. This Sunday is a day to pull away from mental/emotional struggle and disturbing events that overload your circuits. As best you can, release or suspend the ominous burden of war in prayer that includes prayer for those who are called to represent us (on all sides) in securing the greater good. A lighter heart brings renewal and renewal brings new strength. When we release global events to God, to Our Higher Power, to an Intelligent Universe, we also throw off any traces of shadowy malaise in our hearts.
In my second year of college, I took 2 literature courses that blew open the narrow frames of my childhood and the campus scenes of the 70's. The first was a class on existentialism, and the second Marjory McCorcadale's class in transcendental literature. My first assignment in Transcendentalism was returned with a note from the professor that said, "I fear the malaise of everyday life has you in its clutches!". The grade was written, "Sadly, 'A'". Her notes shocked me. Having spent the previous semester absorbed in Existential literature, I assumed life was 'absurd', despair or rebellion the only intelligent recourse. I chewed on here notes, while we read and wrote on Emerson and Thoreau. But it was Walt Whitman, writing of his sheer love of humanity and "everyday life" as the very expression of God, that freed me. Life became wondrous and the summer that followed brought my first spiritual awakening,
Malaise is an interesting word, originating from the French (along with many Existentialists). It can be a kind of prodromal feeling that illness is setting in, or that you are right on the cusp of a cold or flu or other virus, but it also can be applied to rather lifeless emotions and general unease. Merriam-Webster's online dictionary offers this definition: "A recipe: combine a handful of the blahs, a pinch of the blues, and maybe a soupçon of ennui, season generously with 'under the weather,' and voila, you’ve got yourself the stew of sinking sensations known as malaise."
Time to shake it off before it pulls you too low! Yes there are weighty issues to be reckoned with, in the world, in American society and in our own lives, but we need lightness, too. That's really what the 50th annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is about this week, as well as fall festivals across America, and even early preparations for Halloween. Try adding a touch of play or even whimsy to the week ahead. If you are in Albuquerque, at least look out your window. There maybe a balloon (or 10 or 100) floating by... perhaps mysteriously announcing your spiritual breakthrough! If you are elsewhere, let life's magic find you. (Susan Nettleton)
For a touch of lightness:
https://jmolin.com/2008/10/avocado-by-gary-snyder/
https://poets.org/poem/watermelons?page=1
October 15, 2023
This Sunday my focus is on cultivating a peaceful heart. A peaceful heart can free us to find the lightness of life that I encouraged last Sunday, but it can also give us strength and stability to navigate life's times of turbulence. As more details and graphic images of the attack on Israel emerge and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza escalates, world response pours forth, new battle lines are drawn, and another war begins. For those who mourn or frantically await news of family and friends, for those who have nowhere to go and must find their way through an urban battlefield, a peaceful heart realistically is out of reach for now. And this is not the only war this October of 2023, nor the only violent conflict.
Where I sit this weekend, the weather is fantastic, the afternoon is quiet--full of daily activity--not silent...quiet. It's not that big of stretch to find inner peace, because the day itself is peaceful. Or is my day peaceful, because of inner peace?--or is the division false, and peace, simply is. One morning this week, I had to unexpectedly run an early errand for family. When I returned, my street parking space had been overtaken by a huge moving van and I had to find another spot down the street. A hijacked spot is a huge issue in L.A. County. When I found a place to park, I let go and took a moment to reel in my annoyance. I know what it is to face a move, the way my neighbor must be facing now. I know how hard movers work and calculate to efficiently arrange things--it's their job, their work. The weather was great. I also knew the longer walk was really better for me. It was absurd to be annoyed; I recovered my peace. I then went back to my morning task of trying to get phone help for a highly inconvenient wifi failure that the day before had cost me an entire day of frustration. The phone line kept cutting out. Each time I called back, I had to go through a Robot gate keeper, punch in all the numbers, listen to more "options", wait to talk to a real person, only have the phone line suddenly cut off, leaving me to go through the same fruitless action again. Ah, but the next day, I actually was able to resolve--not the whole issue--but to put in place a stop-gap measure. Once again, that meant letting go of really petty judgements, conflicts and annoyances to find the heart of Peace that sustains.
My point here is that the magnitude and horror of war puts our personal conflicts and anger in perspective. Peace in my world always begins with me. You may personally feel an inner directive to actively respond, to publicly or privately participate in national and global efforts of any scope in unfolding world events. Listen to the directives of your mind and heart. Yet Peace as a Spiritual practice, blossoms as we give way to a Peace that heals the daily forms of conflict, anger, fear and frustration right here and now. This means Peace (and forgiveness) with our family, our neighbors, our community, our borders, our environment, and from that foundation, our world. In prayer, that Peace expands. Whatever degree of a peaceful heart we nurture adds to the consciousness of the whole world. Welcome today as your day of Peace. (Susan Nettleton).
Some poetic reflections:
https://www.dorothyhunt.org/peace-is-this-moment
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../InTime/index.html
October 22, 2023
This week as October deepens, it seems a good time to consider release and a time to unburden ourselves. The Israel/Hamas war and daily news in general brings heart breaking, frightening images and sound into our homes, along with flash social media messages of hyper-condensed information, including warnings of misinformation and deliberate attempts to further escalate social/political conflict. Our senses, with or without our consent, take it all in and fill our neural circuits with the experiences and beliefs of others.
Historically, autumn was a time to prepare for the harsher times of winter, completing the chores of harvest, food storage, and generally preparing homes for longer stretches indoors. The industrial revolution and then more advanced technology brought us indoors, and now climate change upends patterns and predictability. Still, on a natural level as green fades into the colors of fall, it's a time of release. Today, consider an active release of things and ideas you no longer need. We all have to one degree or another, an inner hoarder who has accumulated more than it can possibly use in this lifetime--not just stuff or objects, but resentments, habits, conclusions and even yearnings--habitual feeling states that are more burdens than life-enhancing, living responses to events. Like the extreme hoarder who has over-filled their living space with no empty spot to physically navigate, we fill our inner space with rehearsal of the past and accumulated habitual reactions, assumptions, speculation-- even metaphysical rule books. There's little room left to navigate the constant new input.
Consider one aspect of your life right now, that it is truly time to release. If more follows, fine--one thread often leads to another. Your life is complex; lives intersect. But something comes to mind, when you read, "it's time to let this go." Time to unburden. (Susan Nettleton)�
For poetry:
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../ThisOnly/index.html
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../october-56d23212a5b72
If you have news overload, here are 2 soothing videos:
October 29, 2023
As I complete this post this morning, the world is watching escalating devastation in Gaza. Today I am writing on "worry" in the context of the season, as war casualties mount. Take this moment first to pray for (or affirm) Peace and Healing, and/or Intelligent, Compassionate Resolution, so that Peace can last. That prayer is already within you, offer it to our world.
October ends with Tuesday's Halloween connecting us to ancient rituals of the past, yet every year brings adaptation to new archetypes. November opens with religious holidays: All Saints Day, All Souls Day and Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead, when those who have died reunite with the living for a brief celebratory visit). These together bring an atmospheric mix of the supernatural, both welcomed and dreaded, fantasy, fears, prayers, play, and messages of reward and threat--life and death. It seems to me a good time to look at worry.
We are living in changing times. Change brings disruptions, loss of familiar places, routines, connections. News and social media have discovered the competitive advertising power of catastrophizing singular events, reducing information to small bites that cause added alarm and motivate us to worry more and seek more information and solutions. Change brings new forms that push us to learn, build new relationships and measure risks in exploring an array of options. A long life inevitably means adapting to change. Worry is a mental process, focused on thought, a human response to uncertainty and loss of control. When our churning thoughts predict catastrophe, worry disrupts sleep and appetite and magnifies pain. But worry's main disservice is that it stunts our capacity to problem-solve, to reason and plan.
This week, consider a focus on problem-solving, followed by a bed-time spiritual release. Problem solving is usually supported by defining YOUR problem in writing, separating it from entanglement with all other worries floating around. The creative part is listing 10 possibilities the problem could be solved--here is room for the unexpected and even improbable. It's simply a way of dispelling the locked-in assumptions of circular thinking. If an obvious solution appears, explore it further, and take action. If not, set it aside, reminding yourself you have already begun the solution process. Return to it when you have time to sit and think. If there is a list of problems, work your way down. When worry strikes, go back to problem solving. But each night, before sleep, give it all up. Surrender to the Highest. "I release all concern and all responsibilities; Guidance comes through rest, through letting go, through sleep." You cannot solve the world's problems as a single individual, no one person (of whatever rank) can. Ultimately though, your personal problems are not separate from the world's problems; your worry is the world's worry. Lighten it's load. (Susan Nettleton).
"If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. - E. Joseph Cossman
For poetry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45041/theme-in-yellow
November 5, 2023
Today's post is in remembrance of Dr. Larry Morris (Dec. 17, 1939-Nov. 4, 2015). Since his passing, I have come across various yet to be published "Positive Thoughts" and poetry to share with you today as we begin November. They carry a message of this life as a spiritual process that enfolds ourselves, our relationships, and our planet in 2023. (Susan Nettleton)
"Order--There is an order throughout this universe. Physicists sometimes describe the patterns in nature as marked by an eloquence of precision and intelligence. This universe itself is filled with intelligence. Einstein said: 'God doesn't play dice with the universe.' The universe flows in order and harmony. Seasons on this earth flow in orderly sequence. Day and night alternate in a harmonious measured rotation. Rain softens the earth and the sun warms it so that life can grow. We inhabit a universe that supports and sustains us in harmony and order--so we can relax."
"Family Breakthrough--Let's breakthrough all of our old ways of relating the people in our lives. Let's begin to see our family--our closest loved ones--in a new light. There's a spiritual dimension to family life. Each of our family members is a unique individual unlike anyone else in this universe. As we surrender our habitual thoughts and feelings about our loved ones, we instantly enter into a new and freeing relationship with them. Instead of worry and pressure, we begin to experience our family as joy and harmony and new possibilities. We allow a newness that unites us to each person in our family to reveal the real depths of Love."
"Vision of Beauty--Once in a jungle in India, an explosion of beauty penetrated my heart to the core. For the first time in my life, I knew the transforming power of beauty. Each of us, everyday, can be healed, uplifted and transformed by simply allowing ourselves to be in touch with the beauty that surrounds our lives. From the infinite wonder of the sky to the tiniest gesture of a small child, from a singe glowing flower to the vast mountains around us, we live in a world of beauty. Open your heart to beauty today." (Larry Morris)
For Larry poetry: https://hillsidesource.com/howdy-larry-poem
https://hillsidesource.com/before-the-clouds
https://hillsidesource.com/an-ordinary-life-larry-poem
https://hillsidesource.com/its-yours-larry-poem
For those of you who did not know Larry, you can find a short biography on our website at: https://hillsidesource.com/churchhistory (scroll down the page.) And for info on our 2024 Larry Morris Memorial Scholarship, https://hillsidesource.com/scholarship.
Anyone who wants to write about Larry can do so on the memorial site, Forever Missed, at.drlarrymorris.forevermissed.com
November 12, 2023
"When the heart is right
'For' and 'against' are forgotten."--Chuang Tzu
This morning, I am reflecting on duality, expressed as the human tendency to divide life (events, people, opinions, etc.) into two often conflicting opposites, augmented by all or nothing thinking. This inherent tendency in human thinking is a short cut for organizing and managing the complexities of life, but it also is a short-sighted, over simplification that limits creative thought, blocks positive, intelligent exchange, and ignites conflict. Divisive, dualistic thought undermines spiritual peace. War, in turn, brings a surge of dualism. Today culminates this weekend of Veterans Day ceremonies, honoring American military veterans. The holiday is more palpable now with a sober background of war in Gaza and Ukraine and military units that serve in, or wait near, war zones.
Today also begins Hindu Diwali, a 5 day Festival of Light that includes the Hindu New Year, and is increasingly celebrated in the U.S. Diwali traditions include ancient stories of the triumph of good over evil, the spiritual theme of the holiday. Light conquers darkness; knowledge conquers ignorance; good prevails. Duality then, ultimately dissolves in this Festival of Light. The problem is our human perspective. In war, all sides claim to be the force of light. A spiritual life that is grounded in participation in the world can become painfully confusing when there is social perception of only two groups, with social demand to choose your side. Underlying this demand, is the fundamental construct of duality as the core of human conflict: "them vs. us".
When we turn to Biblical thought, the idea of duality is further confounded, with Jesus' statement in Luke 11:23 and Matthew 12:30: "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me, scatters." Yet, in another context, his disciples announce they have shut down those who are not "with" Jesus but had dared to cast out 'demons' in his name. Jesus instructs the disciples not to interfere, saying "for the one who is not against us, is for us." (Luke 9:50 and Mark 9:40). There are so many varying interpretations and manipulations of Jesus' words. The key, in my mind, is the spiritual intent underlying each situation. His words "with me" refer to gathering together, rather than scattering apart. It is a call to gathering in spiritual union, which is love, not division. Division scatters. Love unites. Jesus words echo Chuang Tzu. "When the heart is right, 'for' and 'against' are forgotten." This is spiritual Peace, the root of all peace. (Susan Nettleton)
For Chuang Tzu's poem: https://www.wisdom2be.com/gems-poetry-wisdomstories/when-the-shoe-fits-by-chuang-tzu?rq=Chuang%20Tzu%2C%20
For righting the heart:
https://www.templebuddhistcenter.com › articles-mini-lessons › theheatofmidnighttears
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../WhataHumanIs/index.html
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../Iambeginning/index.html
November 15, 2023
Announcement to all!
Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, December 3, 2023 with Dr. Susan Nettleton
Topic: Resolve: The Will to Yield
Date: December 3, 2023
Time: 11:00 AM Mountain Time, 10:00 AM Pacific Time
If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: Hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address.
November 19, 2023
This Sunday as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, I encourage you to find a space of gratitude and spend some time there. To me, this is an inner space, but not limited to just our inner life. There are certainly outer spaces that hold gratitude for each of us. Outer spaces can kick start an inner opening; outer spaces can provide structure and sanctuary that ground us, giving us a kind of freedom and safety to feel, listen, explore what are often are structureless emotions. We need a space, inner or outer, to access genuine gratitude.
The culture is already bombarding us with 'standard protocol' (who to see/what to do/where to be, what to eat/drink, how to feel) in expectation of Thanksgiving Day. These scripts are in addition to our own group dynamics and family traditions. The news this weekend predicts over 55 million Americans will travel this week. Weather predictions in the East Coast areas warn of storms, setting the stage for disruptions and possible emergencies, mixing positive anticipation of visits with more anxiety. Black Friday marketing, now fused with not just the day after Thanksgiving, but what has become a season of bargains and savvy shopping, adds to the cultural menu. And, the background of larger world issues: war, climate change, political conflicts (including history), can weigh heavy like the impending storms.
Despite all this, a collective practice of Thanksgiving holds powerful positive possibilities. It connects us not just a challenged American myth, but the reality of ancient, even timeless, feast days across the globe, arising from human dependency on one another and on the natural world. Gratitude to the forces of life, for sustaining life and specifically human life, extends beyond humanity and nature, to mystery, to reverence, and an impulse--the heart's pull to thank the very Source of life we call God, in all It's forms and names.
To truly be a part of that pull, that prayer, that communion, we need a space for gratitude, an empty space, a space for the real, not fabricated or forced. We let gratitude sprout. Your heart/mind/body does not need you to force yourself to be grateful. This has nothing to do with what you should, ought, or must feel. If no gratitude arises, just hold the space reserved for it. Listen to what is real and true for you, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem to the manufactured world. Gratitude is a seed. It will grow, it will be real, and much needed in this world. Happy Thanksgiving. (Susan Nettleton)
For poetic reflection: https://hillsidesource.com/lifes-energy-larry-poem
https://www.poetseers.org/.../mary-oliver-poems/the-sun/
https://grateful.org/.../because-of-libraries-we-can-say.../
November 25, 2023
On Thanksgiving Day, I learned that, despite our family's shopper having loaded up on groceries at 4 different stores the evening before, we were short a few items, and I was designated last-minute-pick-up-person. After checking store hours, I decided to give Ralphs a try. Although I often frequent smaller neighborhood markets, during the Pandemic I adapted to online grocery orders and simple parking lot pickups at Ralphs, a real grocery store. Now I was actually going back inside on Thanksgiving Day! I had forgotten the sheer volume and size of that store. It overflowed with aisles of fresh veggies and fruit, and refrigerated rows of choice after choice. Wow! Customers were rushed, but upbeat, and well...friendly, as I wove in and out and around baskets. My list was a short 5 items, but I couldn't help myself, and added extra treats along the way. The kind young checker was friendly too, asking about my plans, joking with me about the last minute ingredients. We laughed together and wished each other a fine celebration. As I loaded my own car, I felt a sense of a larger community, still working to dissolve remnants of our years of Pandemic isolation. Holidays are avenues for healing.
As this weekend comes to a close and Gaza war hostages are being released on both sides, it seems to me a powerful time to self-reflect, not just on gratitude, but also empathy and forgiveness. Empathy is an aspect of forgiveness; gratitude is the other side of forgiveness. Gratitude is an antidote to a critical, complaining, dissatisfied mood and mind. Gratitude makes it easier to forgive and forgiveness makes its easier to be grateful, beyond the obvious level of 'getting what we want' in situations. Empathy aids this process in the world of human relationships.
A very simple definition of empathy is our capacity to perceive events from another's perspective. That implies an understanding that other people are not just reflections of ourselves, our beliefs, and value systems. "Another's perspective" includes emotional responses as well as their cognitive interpretations and physical reactions. Human empathy is a powerful force in social stability and coherence, and promotes both concern for and the desire to help others. A collective loss of empathy creates schisms in social order. Not surprisingly, there have been several scientific studies showing that empathy has decreased in this country over the several decades, due to various possible causes. In the last few years, the overwhelming news of Pandemic tragedies and fatalities, the sheer workload of health care workers and first responders, and social isolation is believed to have undermined natural empathy through compassion burnout. Additionally, social media is believed to play a role, as real time social interaction is reduced further and further to meme's, artificial facial expressions, and robotic voices. (Visual facial clues play an important role in empathy.)
Empathy, gratitude, forgiveness--all play a part in our reconciling human events with our spiritual life. Although these are qualities we can study, explore, choose to cultivate through practice, or resist, resent, and dismiss, they naturally spring from the human heart. It is possible that--like flowers in sunlight--we need real world, face to face interaction with other people, for these to blossom. Try your own experiment and see. (Susan Nettleton)
For poetic perspective: https://grateful.org/resource/belonging/ https://onlyart.org/poets/william-stafford/assurance/
December 1, 2023
Announcement to all!
Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, December 3, 2023 with Dr. Susan Nettleton
Topic: Resolve: The Will to Yield
Date: December 3, 2023
Time: 11:00 AM Mountain Time, 10:00 AM Pacific Time
If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: Hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address.
December 3, 2023
Today's post is an excerpt from this morning's Zoom talk, "Resolve: The Will to Yield". I decided to post the end of the talk, the final conclusion, rather than other parts. The audio for today's complete talk will be posted in a week or two on our website: hillsidesource.com, under "resources, audio files", or a direct link on the home page.
"The idea of being resolute can range into steel resolve. There are stories of the great 16th century zen warrior and writer Miyamoto Musashi, who saw the Warrior as someone who mastered various art forms beyond mastery of the sword: tea ceremony, construction , writing, and sumi painting. He separated his religion from his swordsmanship and warrior status, writing "Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help." I mention him because of his quote: "The Way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death." Note that Buddhism accepted multiple rebirths and seppuku (suicide, falling on ones own blade) was a noble way to die in the face of defeat. (I have to admit this form of resolve brought to my minds the contemporary safety message of DWTD.*) But it follows the samurai tradition, often tied to Zen, as an aspect of feudal culture that ran from the late 12th to late 19th century. I find it significant that an updated model of the Samurai is still revered, with modern variations that draw from the archetype and its underlying structure or practice in all sorts of endeavors: business samurai, sports, martial arts, entrepreneurs, investment samurai, gaming of course. The appeal of battle is glorified.
Part of the fascination is the mythical sense of being alive in the face of death, of a warrior being capable of total focus, freed from fear, with 360 degree awareness, able to shift when necessary, yet cultured and multi-talented, agile in both mind and body...resolute to do ones ultimate best. Yet, given the horrors or war, including current wars, is this warrior archetype, really a model for our times? On the other hand, this archetype is sometimes used as spiritual metaphor--acceptance of death can be interpreted as willingness to undergo ego death, death of the separate self, and fluidity is seen in terms of going with the chi, or the energy of life, not in opposition or as an attempt to conquer it. Realistically, there are also health benefits to staying fit. While they may require resolve; they don't require force.
Yet, people and paths come in different types, Today, I am offering a more gentle resolve, again one based on love. As Otto Rank wrote, will is what shapes, what choses, a way to become an individual. Our individual will can choose to yield to the larger movement of life, to love that which sustains and supports us all. Lao Tzu said, ... "the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death. The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life. " So in your process of discovering your resolve, or fulfilling it, consider the gentle and yielding. (Susan Nettleton)
For poetry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../to-live-in-the-mercy...
https://www.thenatureofthings.blog/.../poetry-sunday-dont...
https://www.appleseeds.org/my-symph.htm
*Dumb ways to die, originally from the Australian rail safety campaign, and now in popular culture and gaming.
December 10, 2023
As we move further into December's holiday season here in southern California, Christmas decor is springing up everywhere. The neighborhood churches are posting their programs and sermon topics on their marquis, California style. Yesterday I was inspired by one as I drove past..."Christmas Without the Crazy". In the Christian holiday, we know the "Crazy" of trying to balance gift-giving, Santa traditions, cards, the post office, holiday travel, visitors, year-end parties, Christmas programs, pageants, our own financial limitations, and hopefully, time for meditation and prayer. The Christmas story too easily becomes rote or buried in the sea of "To Do before December 25" list. But this year, "Without the Crazy" also has me reflecting today on Jewish Hanukkah. Tonight, the 4th of the 8 day holiday, prayers will be recited, and 4 of the 8 ritual candles lit. Historically, it is the story of political repression of religion in the conquest of war, then the reversal of victory that led to the reconstruction of the holy Temple, and the miraculous story of the single (1-day) jar of oil that kept candles lit for 8 days. Hanukkah expresses an over 2,000 year tradition that is summed up (similar to what I wrote for Diwali) as the conquest of Light over Darkness. Within all religions are ancient tales that offer modern life meaning, solutions, and yes, the miraculous, that's why they are re-told and celebrated. That is why we give them respect.
The irrational, nonsensical aspect of this December, 2023 is that any religion can still be used by those who seek conflict to spur violence and war. Like a ax aimed to split wood down the middle, there is an energy that aims to disrupt and turn social order against itself. Yet, we (humanity) are capable of coexistence. We (humanity) are intelligent enough to figure out how to do that, how to coexist. At the core of human spirituality, which is expressed in that deepest understanding of one's own religion and the deepest grasping of the heart of our neighbor's religion, the human parts find the Whole. We coexist as a Whole that nourishes us all. Religion that divides makes no sense in this century. That doesn't mean there is one world religion. What a wonder that the human mind and heart has discovered so many facets, so many paths, congruent and incongruent, still leaving room for the Unknown and the Mystery. To me, that is sanity. (Susan Nettleton)
For poetry: https://hillsidesource.com/punyabhumi-christmas-larry-poem
https://allpoetry.com/.../13442444--co-existing-by-joseph...
December 17, 2023
Today, I am taking my theme from another neighborhood church Christmas display: Ten magnificent white letters, each about 4 ft. tall, each filled with white tree lights, and set across the hilly lawn, calling passerby's to "BE THE LIGHT". The words echo the spiritual ideal of light that conquers darkness. In Christmas, this ideal is a celebration of Christ's birth, as Jesus himself declared (John 12:8), “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declares to the gathering crowd, "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (Matthew 14-16)." The charge to "Be the Light", shifts our spiritual focus away from the separation that gives rise to worship and celebration, to Being--to spiritual expression, to Union.
This Sunday is also Larry Morris's birthday, and so it seems fitting to turn to some of his poetic expressions on Light and savor their meaning as a meditation. In his book, Home At Last, Larry writes of a Light Bringer, updating Jesus's metaphor of hiding a candle under a bushel, and offering instead a warning of Christmas commercialism: "Don't hide your light in a shadowy warehouse of desire." In the brief poem Fullness, the world of nature fulfills us: "The ground filled with leaves, my heart fills with gold light." In Poems from the Moon, "Hope for the future does shine bright inside, dissolving the past, erasing the hurts." "Glimpses of Grace", a small book of aphorisms, brings further fuel for contemplation: "How Light uncovers you" as the daily sun dances across the sky, "Smile lights up a face"...while "Seeking Wisdom, Finding Light"...and "When self crumbles, Light appears." With Apples from the Tree, he consoles us: "The cloud if it comes is only another Way of Light, we can't NOT find it"..."Always we come back to acceptance, this life, this life, so gladness of heart underneath all, and always. Sweet, Sweet. Light, Light. Peace, Peace." The Heart of Life remains a "Lantern of love, holding flames close."
Certainly this Christmas 2023, the world--secular and religious--is calling for Light. Even if you crumble, even it clouds darken, even if all you can offer is your smile, look to see the beauty, and discover your acceptance. This week, be the Lantern, be the Light.
For more poetry: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../StarTeachers/index.html
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../Youarecloser/index.html
December 24, 2023
Today is Christmas Eve, a day, and especially a night, that is timelessly tied to the call of Peace. This year that call has been focused on the war zones, especially Gaza, but the Peace of Christmas Eve is not just a reference to ending military war. It is a call to Peace on Earth, Goodwill to All. Peace on Earth is achieved when we realize 'Goodwill' extends to everyone, not just the causes we support and the people we love. Goodwill to All. That means, "well-wishing", a kindly attitude toward others with the expectation and/or blessing that their life will turn out well. Peace and Goodwill feed one another. When we are at Peace, we are not intimidated by others, fearful or threatened (physically or emotionally). When we can find goodwill in our hearts toward others, our sense of peace deepens. It is obviously easier to be generous with goodwill, when there is no conflict. But some people focus so much on their own struggles to be at peace, they simply don't consider the struggles of others, let alone allow themselves a conscious attitude of goodwill. And yes, it is possible to face conflict and/or hostility and still wish another the highest and best outcome for them as well as yourself. We supersede the purely human perspective and hold to a higher Good that includes disagreeable people and life's bullies.
There is a Sufi story about the Persian "wise fool" Mulla Nasruddin, who was attacked by an angry man, thrown down to endure sand kicked in his face. Nasruddin rose up and as the man rode away, Nasruddin shouted blessings on him that included, "May you receive all that you long for". His shocked friends questioned why he would react with such blessings. Nasruddin answered, "Because if he has everything he wants, he won't go around kicking sand in a Sufi's face." In the long run, Goodwill is in our best self interest.
In these times, there is a strong undertow that pulls against peace and goodwill. Even Peace itself can be turned into opposition and conflict. If you have lived long enough, you surely have known some Christmas's without peace. As a medical student assigned to the emergency room at Ben Taub hospital--a major trauma center in Houston--and later, as a Psychiatry resident at UNM Hospital's Psychiatric Center, I sometimes worked Christmas Eve, handling various emergencies all night. Those nights were not, by any means, filled with peace for those with fighting families, drug and alcohol overdoses, and frightening accidents. But it their own way, Christmas Emergency Rooms give shelter from the storms of life. My job was to remember to bring Peace, to let there be some felt peace, some shelter. Human history also includes the grave trespasses of war during Christmas as well as powerful stories of soldiers who agreed to pause for Peace at Christmas, offering the peace of safety. Paradoxically, sometimes it's easier to focus on war and prayers for Peace, than it is to face having to build peace and goodwill in our own complex lives.
My sense is that Christmas Eve as it unfolds into Christmas morning, is an opening to Peace, each year for over 2 thousand years, at a new/renewed depth that expands collective consciousness. You are a part of this, whether or not you have any inclination to Christianity. Regardless of your background and beliefs, you contribute your consciousness to the whole. (And yes, other religious holidays create other collective openings.) Allow yourself Peace tonight. It may arrive in the middle of your Christmas Eve traditions, or while you are avoiding 'the party'; it may hover until the last light is turn off, and you let go to sleep. Don't struggle with thoughts of what comes next; save that for New Years. Let your day lead you to your night of Peace. Offer your goodwill and know that the world receives it. (Susan Nettleton)
Poetry of Peace: https://hillsidesource.com/celtic-blessing-of-deep-peace
December 31, 2023
Welcome to the last day of 2023! As we move toward a new year, it's worth reflecting, at least momentarily, how you personally view the shift. Does the ending of 2023 bring relief, enthusiasm for a beginning, or melancholy at the passing of time, or perhaps simply indifference? I often feel it is important to recognize New Year's celebrations as cultural constructs; a new year expresses our human attempt to manage and track time, the idea of 'aging' over time, and cycles of life that parallel cycles of nature's seasons. Around these ideas, we weave the concept of not just starting over, but the idea that as we begin anew, we have the opportunity and space to also shift our behavior, our experiences, ideas and relationships. We can chose to change as we participate in the collective change to a new year. Even though the various religions of the world have different dates for New Years, different mythologies and teachings that surround their celebrations, they all have this element of opportunity for change, and the expectation of renewal and growth that reflects the natural world.
But to have the new, something is released; to have renewal, something must be activated when some aspect of life has reached its stasis. Life is movement, to stand still too long is to stagnate. There are many cultural rituals that surround the world's New Year celebrations, but on the deepest spiritual level, forgiveness cuts through stagnation to release the life forces blocked by our emotions, wounds, and mistakes. Today, I encourage you to reserve a bit of meditation time for forgiveness. Forgiveness can seem like a very complex and difficult thing to achieve, but really that is just our own fear of it. We are afraid that forgiveness will backfire; the problem (insult, wound, pain, infraction, betrayal, disappointment, failure, weakness, etc.) will only continue or worsen. There is little in our current divisive culture that supports forgiveness. Yet, there are multiple psychological research studies which show the positive effects that forgiveness brings to mental and physical health. Forgiveness is freedom. Ignoring the power of forgiveness is to withhold freedom.
Forgiveness work often happens over time, but New Year's Eve forgiveness has an added kick of the collective intent to release the old year and receive the new, with optimism and expectation of positive change. When we forgive on New Year's Eve we link our intent with collective intent, adding a new momentum. In a quiet turning inward, forgive 2023, forgive yourself for any mistakes you feel you have made, real or imagined, forgive those who have trespassed against you, and accept (in faith) their forgiveness. Let it be a release. Of course, people and situations may come to you that you simply are not ready to forgive. Give yourself more time. You cannot do it wrong, just start. On New Year's Day, begin again. Happy New Year! (Susan Nettleton)
For poetry: https://hillsidesource.com/coming-and-going-larry-poem
https://www.oocities.org/tokyo/pagoda/1964/hsuchunchien.html
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44316/on-quitting
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54327/to-the-new-year